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1 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/newenglandsrarit01joss 


ARCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


TRANSACTIONS 


AND 


COLLECTIONS 


OF  THE 


AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY. 


VOLUME  IV. 


PRINTED  FOR  THE  SOCIETY. 


1860. 


NOTE. 


The  book  is  reprinted  literally,  except  in  the  following  items : — 

Page  18,  line  5,  of  the  old  edition,  “ amphibius”  is  spelled  right. 

Page  28,  line  16,  “Fresh-water  mullet”  is  brought  into  a line  by  itself,  instead  of 
being  made  an  apparent  synonyme  of  the  morse. 

Page  32,  line  6,  one  of  the  names  of  the  yard-fish  is  omitted. 

Page  47,  line  15,  “ Akrons,”  where  it  occurs  first,  is  corrected  akorns. 

Page  48,  line  14,  the  same  correction  is  made  where  “akrons”  first  occurs. 

Page  54,  line  5,  “ Knavers  ” is  spelled  knaves. 

Page  58,  line  18,  “it”  is  printed  its. 

Page  61,  line  2,  comma  omitted  after  blackish. 

Page  86,  line  21,  “ Planets”  is  corrected  to  plants. 

Page  101,  line  last,  “ ones  ” is  corrected  to  one. 

Page  104,  line  4,  “ Richards”  is  printed  Richard;  and,  line  5,  “ Water”  is  corrected  to 
Walter. 

Page  104  to  end,  11  Anno  Dom .”  is  omitted  from  the  old  paging,  but  inserted  in  the  new 
paging  instead. 

In  the  list  of  Fishes  (the  book  proposing  to  consider  Neio-England  Curiosities),  all 
those  fishes  which,  according  to  the  author,  either  in  this  book  or  the  Voyages, 
are  found  in  New-Eugland  waters,  are  distinguished  from  the  rest  by  Italic  letters. 


New-E?tglands 

RARITIES 

Difcovered : 

I N 

Birds,  Beajis,  Fijhes,  Serpents, 
and  Plants  of  that  Country. 

Together  with 

The  Phyfical  and  Chyrurgical  Reme- 
dies wherewith  the  Natives  con- 
ftantly  ufe  to  Cure  their  Distem- 
pers, Wounds,  and  Sores. 
also 

A per  fed:  Dejcription  of  an  Indian 
SQUA,  in  all  her  Bravery  ; with  a 
POEM  not  improperly  conferr’d 
upon  her. 

LASTLY 

A CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

of  the  moil  remarkable  Paffages  in  that 
Country  amongft  the  English. 

Illujtrated  with  CUTS. 

By  JOHN  JOSSELTN , Gent. 

London , Printed  for  G.  Widdowes  at  the 

Green  Dragon  in  St.  Pauls  Church  yard,  1672. 


TO  THE  HIGHLY  OBLIGING, 


HIS  HONORED  FRIEND  AND  KINSMAN, 
SAMUEL  FORTREY,  Esq. 


Sir, 

It  was  by  your  assistance  (enabling  me)  that  I commenc’d 
a voyage  into  those  remote  parts  of  the  world  (known  to  us  by  the 
painful  discovery  of  that  memorable  gentleman,  Sir  Fran.  Drake). 
Your  bounty,  then  and  formerly,  hath  engaged  a retribution  of  my 
gratitude  ; and,  not  knowing  how  to  testifie  the  same  unto  you  other- 
ways,  I have  (although  with  some  reluctancy)  adventured  to  obtrude 
upon  you  these  rude  and  indigested  eight  years’  observations,  wherein 
whether  I shall  more  shame  my  self,  or  injure  your  accurate  judgment 
and  better  employment  in  the  perusal,  is  a question. 

We  read  of  kings  and  gods  that  kindly  took 
A pitcher  fill’d  with  water  from  the  brook. 

The  contemplation  whereof  (well  knowing  your  noble  and  generous 
disposition)  hath  confirm’d  in  me  the  hope  that  you  will  pardon  my 
presumption,  and  accept  the  tender  of  the  fruits  of  my  travel  after 
this  homely  manner,  and  my  self  as, 

Sir, 

Your  highly  obliged  and  most  humble  Servant, 


JOHN  JOSSELYN. 


NEW-ENGLAND’S  RARITIES 


DISCOVERED. 


In  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1663,  May  28,  upon  an  invitation 
from  my  only  brother,  I departed  from  London,  and  arrived 
at  Boston,  the  chief  town  in  the  Massachusets,  a colony  of 
Englishmen  in  New  England,  the  28th  of  July  following. 

Boston  (whose  longitude  is  315  deg.,  and  42  deg.  30  min. 
of  north  latitude)  is  built  on  the  south-west  side  of  a bay 
large  enough  for  the  anchorage  of  500  sail  of  ships.  The 
buildings  are  handsome,  joyning  one  to  the  other  as  in  Lon- 
don ; with  many  large  streets,  most  of  them  paved  with  pebble 
stone.  In  the  high  street  towards  the  Common,  there  are 
fair  buildings,  some  of  stone  ; and,  at  the  east  end  of  the 
[2]  town,  one  amongst  the  rest,  built  by  the  shore  by  Mr. 
Gibs,  a merchant,  being  a stately  edifice,  which  it  is  thought 
will  stand  him  in  little  less  than  £3,000  before  it  be  fully 
finished.1  The  town  is  not  divided  into  parishes ; yet  they 


1 This  house  was  one  Mr.  Robert  Gibbs’s,  “ of  an  ancient  family  in  Devonshire,” 
says  Farmer  (Geneal.  Reg.,  p.  120);  and  it  stood  on  Fort  Hill,  the  way  leading  to  it 
becoming  afterwards  known  as  Gibbs’s  Lane,  and  a wharf  at  the  waterside,  belonging 
to  the  property,  as  Gibbs’s  Wharf.  Mr.  W.  B.  Trask,  who  obligingly  examined  for  me 
the  early  deeds  concerning  this  estate  in  Suffolk  Registry,  furnishes  a memorandum, 
that  on  the  6th  June,  1671,  Robert  Gibbs  of  Boston,  merchant,  conveys  to  Edward  and 
Elisha  Hutchinson,  in  trust,  for  Elizabeth,  wife  of  said  Robert,  during  her  life,  and  after 
her  decease  to  such  child  or  children  as  he  shall  have  by  her,  his  land  and  house  on 
Fort  Hill,  with  warehouse  on  wharf,  ‘ which  land  was  formerly  my  grandfather, 
Henry  Webb’s.’  The  wife  of  said  Robert  Gibbs  was  daughter  to  Jacob  Sheafe  by 
Margaret,  daughter  to  Henry  Webb,  mercer.  Sampson  Sheafe,  a Provincial  councillor 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  the  ancestor  of  a family  of  long  standing  there,  married 
another  daughter  of  Jacob  Sheafe.  Mr.  Gibbs  was  father  to  the  Rev.  Henry  Gibbs, 
minister  of  Watertown,  an  1 had  other  children;  and  the  family  continues  to  this 
day. 


18 


138 


ARCHJEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


have  three  fail'  meeting-houses,  or  churches,  which  hardly 
suffice  to  receive  the  inhabitants  and  strangers  that  come  in 
from  all  parts.2 

Having  refreshed  myself  here  for  some  time,  and  opportune- 
ly lighting  upon  a passage  in  a bark  belonging  to  a friend  of 
my  brother’s,  and  bound  to  the  eastward,  I put  to  sea  again ; 
and,  on  the  fifteenth  of  August,  I arrived  at  Black  Point, 
otherwise  ’ called  Scarborow,  the  habitation  of  my  beloved 
brother,3 4  being  about  an  hundred  leagues  to  the  eastward  of 
Boston.  Here  I resided  eight  years,  and  made  it  my  business 
to  discover,  all  along,  the  natural,  physical,  and  chyrurgical 
rarities  of  this  new-found  world. 

New  England  is  said  to  begin  at  40,  and  to  end  at  46,  of 
northerly  latitude  ; that  is,  from  De  la  Ware  Bay  to  New- 
foundland. 

The  sea-coasts  are  accounted  wholsomest : the  east  and 
south  winds,  coming  [3]  from  sea,  produceth  warm  weather ; 
the  north-west,  coming  over  land,  causeth  extremity  of  cold, 
and  many  times  strikes  the  inhabitants,  both  English  and 
Indian,  with  that  sad  disease  called  there  the  “plague  of  the 
back,”  but  with  us  empiemcc .i 


2 Compare  the  author’s  Voyages,  pp.  19,  161,  173,  for  other  notices  of  Boston,  and 
as  to  the  first  of  these,  which  represents  the  town  (in  1638)  as  “ rather  a village,  . . . 
there  being  not  above  twenty  or  thirty  houses,”  see  the  note  in  Savage’s  Winthrop, 
edit.  1,  vol.  i.  p.  267. 

8 Mr.  Henry  Josselyn  was  probably  living  at  Black  Point  in  1638,  when  his  brother 
first  visited  it  (Voyages,  p.  20).  It  was  then  the  estate  (by  grant  from  the  council  at 
Plymouth)  and  residence  of  Captain  Thomas  Cammock;  but  he,  dying  in  1643,  be- 
queathed it,  except  five  hundred  acres  which  were  reserved  to  his  wife,  to  Josselyn, 
who,  marrying  the  widow,  succeeded  to  the  whole  property,  which  was  described  as 
containing  fifteen  hundred  acres  (Willis,  infra),  but  is  called  by  Sullivan  five  thou- 
sand (History  of  Maine,  p.  128).  In  1658,  this  and  other  adjoining  tracts  were  erected 
into  a town  by  Massachusetts,  under  the  name  of  Scarborough,  which  is  thus  further 
noticed  by  our  author  in  his  Voyages,  p.  201,  as  “the  town  of  Black  Point,  consist- 
ing of  about  fifty  dwelling-houses,  and  a Magazine,  or  Doganne,  scatteringly  built. 
They  have  store  of  neat  and  horses,  of  sheep  near  upon  seven  or  eight  hundred,  much 
arable  and  marsh,  salt  and  fresh,  and  a corn-mill.”  — Comp.  Williamson’s  Hist,  of 
Maine,  vol.  i.  pp.  392,  666;  Willis  in  Geneal,  Register,  vol.  i.  p.  202. 

4 Empyema  is  a result  of  disease  of  the  lungs.  See  Voyages,  p.  121. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


139 


The  country  generally  is  rocky  and  mountainous,  and  ex- 
tremely overgrown  with  wood,  yet  here  and  there  beautified 
with  large,  rich  valleys,  wherein  are  lakes  ten,  twenty,  yea 
sixty  miles  in  compass,  out  of  which  our  great  rivers  have 
their  beginnings.5 

Fourscore  miles  (upon  a direct  line)  to  the  north-west  of 
Scarborow,  a ridge  of  mountains  run  north-west  and  north- 
east an  hundred  leagues,  known  by  the  name  of  the  White 
Mountains,  upon  which  lieth  snow  all  the  year,  and  is  a land- 
mark twenty  miles  off  at  sea.  It  is  rising  ground  from  the 
sea-shore  to  these  hills,  and  they  are  inaccessible  but  by  the 
gullies  which  the  dissolved  snow  hath  made.  In  these  gullies 
grow  saven  bushes,  which,  being  taken  hold  of,  are  a great 
help  to  the  climbing  discoverer.  Upon  the  top  of  the  highest 
of  these  mountains  is  a large  level  [4]  or  plain  of  a day’s 
journey  over,  whereon  nothing  grows  but  moss.  At  the  far- 
ther end  of  this  plain  is  another  hill,  called  the  Sugar  Loaf ; 
to  outward  appearance,  a rude  heap  of  massie  stones,  piled 
one  upon  another  ; and  you  may,  as  you  ascend,  step  from  one 
stone  to  another,  as  if  you  were  going  up  a pair  of  stairs ; but 
winding  still  about  the  hill,  till  you  come  to  the  top;  which 
will  require  half  a day’s  time,  and  yet  it  is  not  above  a mile ; 
where  there  is  also  a level  of  about  an  acre  of  ground,  with  a 
pond  of  clear  water  in  the  midst  of  it ; which  you  may  hear 
run  down,  — but  how  it  ascends  is  a mystery.  From  this 
rocky  hill,  you  may  see  the  whole  country  round  about : it  is 
far  above  the  lower  clouds,  and  from  hence  we  beheld  a 
vapour  (like  a great  pillar)  drawn  up  by  the  sunbeams  out 
of  a great  lake  or  pond  into  the  air,  where  it  was  formed  into 
a cloud.  The  country  beyond  these  hills  northward  is  daunt- 

5 Compare  the  accounts  of  the  first  appearance  of  the  country  by  the  Rev.  Francis 
Higginson  and  Mr.  Thomas  Graves,  both  well-qualified  observers,  in  New-England’s 
Plantation,  London,  1630;  reprinted  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  i.  p.  117.  And  see  Wood’s 
New  England’s  Prospect,  a book  which  our  author  was  probably  acquainted  with;  as 
compare  p.  4 of  Wood  (edit.  1764)  with  the  beginning  of  p.  3 of  the  Rarities,  and  some 
other  places  in  both. 


140 


ARCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


ing  terrible,  being  full  of  rocky  bills,  as  thick  as  mole-hills  in 
a meadow,  and  cloathed  with  infinite  thick  woods.6 

New  England  is  by  some  affirmed  to  be  an  island,  bounded 
on  the  north  with  the  [5]  river  Canada,  — so  called  from 
Monsieur  Cane  ; on  the  south  with  the  river  Mohegan,  or 
Hudson’s  River,  - — so  called  because  he  Avas  the  first  that  dis- 
covered it.  Some  Avill  have  America  to  be  an  island ; which, 
out  of  question,  must  needs  be,  if  there  be  a north-east  pas- 


6 The  earliest  ascents  of  the  White  Mountains  were  those  made  by  Field  and 
others  in  1642,  of  which  we  have  some  account  in  AYinthrop’s  Journal  (by  Savage, 
edit.  1,  vol.  ii.  pp.  67,  89).  Darby  Field,  “ an  Irishman  living  about  Pascataquack,”  has 
the  honor  of  being  the  first  European  who  set  foot  upon  the  summit  of  Mount  Wash- 
ington. He  appears  at  Exeter  in  1639,  and  was  at  Dover  in  1645,  and  died  there  in 
1649,  leaving  a widow,  and,  it  is  said,  children  (A.  H.  Quint,  in  N.  E.  Geneal.  Reg., 
vol.  vi.  p.  38).  It  seems  likely,  from  his  account,  that  Field,  on  reaching  the  Indian 
town  in  the  Saco  Valley,  “at  the  foot  of  the  hill”  where  the  “two  branches  of  Saco 
river  met,”  pursued  his  way  up  the  valley  either  of  Rocky  Branch  or  of  Ellis  River, 
till  he  gradually  attained  to  the  region  of  dwarf  firs,  on  what  is  known  as  Boott’s  Spur, 
which  is  between  the  “valley”  called  Oakes’s  Gulf,  in  which  the  “ Mount  Washing- 
ton” branch  of  the  Saco  has  its  head,  and  the  valley  in  which  the  Rocky  Branch  rises 
(see  G.  P.  Bond’s  Map  of  the  White  Mountains).  There  is  no  other  vray  that  shall  fulfil 
the  conditions  of  the  narrative  except  that  over  Boott’s  Spur;  but  of  the  three  streams, 
that  is,  “ the  two  branches  of  Saco  River,”  which  come  together  at  or  near  the  probable 
site  of  the  Indian  town,  the  Rocky  Branch  is  the  shortest,  and  its  valley  the  most  as- 
cending. Field  repeated  his  visit,  with  some  others,  “ about  a month  after;  ” and  latex-, 
in  the  same  year,  the  mountains  were  visited  by  the  worshipful  Thomas  Gorges,  Esq., 
Deputy-Governor,  and  Richard  Vines,  Esq.,  Councillor  of  the  Province  of  Maine,  of 
which  Winthrop  takes  notice  at  p.  89.  Whether  Josselyn  went  up  himself,  or  had  his 
account  from  otheixs,  does  not  appeal-.  But  his  calling  the  mountains  “ inaccessible  but 
by  the  gullies,”  leaves  it  at  least  supposable,  that  he,  or  the  party  from  which  he  got 
his  information  (pexhaps  Gorges’s),  instead  of  gradually  ascending  the  long  ridges,  or 
spurs,  penetrated  into  one  of  the  gulfs  (as  they  ai-e  there  called),  or  ravines,  of  the  east- 
ern side;  the  walls  of  which  are  exceedingly  steep,  and  literally  inaccessible  in  many 
parts,  except  by  the  gullies.  The  “ large  level  or  plain  of  a day’s  journey  over,  whereon 
grows  nothing  but  moss,”  is  noticed  in  Winthrop’s  account  of  Gorges’s  ascent,  but  not 
in  that  of  Field’s;  and  this  plain  — which  doubtless  includes  what  has  since  been 
called  “ Bigelow’s  Lawn”  (lying  immediately  under  the  south-eastei-n  side  of  the  summit 
of  Mount  Washington),  but  understood  also,  in  Gorges’s  account,  to  extend  northward 
as  far  as  the  “Lake  of  the  Clouds”  — furnishes  another  ground  for  supposing  that 
the  last-mentioned  explorer,  or,  at  least,  Josselyn,  may  have  penetrated  the  mountain 
by  one  of  its  eastern  ravines;  several  of  which  head  in  the  great  plain  mentioned,  while 
that  is  i-ather  remote  from  what  we  have  taken  for  Field’s  “ ridge.”  Our  author  is  the 
only  authority  for  the  “pond  of  clear  water  in  the  midst  of”  the  top  of  Mount  Wash- 
ington; though  a somewhat  capacious  spring,  which  was  well  known  there  befoi'e  the 
putting-up  of  the  house  on  the  summit,  may  have  been  larger  once;  or  he  may  rather 
have  mistaken,  or  misremembered,  the  position  of  the  Lake  of  the  Clouds. 


NEW-ENGLAND  S RARITIES  DISCOVERED. 


141 


sage  found  out  into  the  South  Sea.* 7  It  contains  1,152,400,000 
acres.  The  discovery  of  the  north-west  passage,  which  lies 
within  the  river  of  Canada,  was  undertaken  with  the  help  of 
some  Protestant  Frenchmen,  which  left  Canada  and  retired 
to  Boston  about  the  year  1669.  The  north-east  people  of 
America  (i.e.,  New  England,  &c.)  are  judged  to  he  Tartars, 
called  Samoades ; being  alike  in  complexion,  shape,  habit, 
and  manners  (see  the  Globe).  Their  language  is  very  signifi- 
cant, using  but  few  words  ; every  word  having  a diverse 
signification,  which  is  exprest  by  their  gesture  : as,  when 
they  hold  their  head  of  one  side,  the  word  signifieth  one 
thing ; holding  their  hand  up  when  they  pronounce  it  signi- 
fieth another  thing.  Their  speeches  in  their  assemblies  are 
very  gravely  delivered,  commonly  in  perfect  liexamiter  verse, 
with  great  silence  and  attention ; and  answered  again  ex  tem- 
pore, after  the  same  manner.8 

[6]  Having  given  you  some  short  notes  concerning  the  coun- 
try in  general,  I shall  now  enter  upon  the  proposed  discovery 
of  the  natural,  physical,  and  chyrurgical  rarities ; and,  that  I 
may  methodically  deliver  them  unto  you,  I shall  cast  them 
into  this  form : 1.  Birds  ; 2.  Beasts  ; 3.  Fishes ; 4.  Serpents 
and  Insects;  5.  Plants,  — of  these,  first,  such  plants  as  are 
common  with  us ; second,  of  such  plants  as  are  proper  to  the 
country;  third,  of  such  plants  as  are  proper  to  the  country, 
and  have  no  name  known  to  us  ; fourth,  of  such  plants  as 
have  sprung  up  since  the  English  planted  and  kept  cattle 
there ; fifth,  of  such  garden  herbs  (amongst  us)  as  do  thrive 
there,  and  of  such  as  do  not ; sixth,  of  stones,  minerals,  metals, 
and  earths. 


1 Compare,  as  to  the  insulation  of  the  tract  understood  bv  Josselyn  as  New  Eng- 

land, Palfrey,  Hist.  N.  E.,  vol.  i.  pp.  1,  2,  and  note,  and  the  accompanying  map. 

8 See  the  author’s  larger  account  of  the  natives  in  his  Voyages,  pp.  123-150. 


142 


ARCH-EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


FIRST,  OF  BIRDS.9 


The  Humming-Bird. 

The  humming-bird,  the  least  of  all  birds,  little  bigger  than 
a dor ; of  variable  glittering  colors.  They  feed  upon  honey, 
which  they  suck  out  of  blossoms  [7]  and  flowers  with  their 
long,  needle-like  bills.  They  sleep  all  winter,  and  are  not  to 
be  seen  till  the  spring ; at  which  time  they  breed  in  little 
nests,  made  up  like  a bottom  of  soft,  silk-like  matter ; their 
eggs  no  bigger  than  a white  pease.  They  hatch  three  or  four 
at  a time,  and  are  proper  to  this  country. 

The  Troculus .10 

The  troculus,  a small  bird,  black  and  white,  no  bigger 
than  a swallow ; the  points  of  whose  feathers  are  sharp, 
which  they  stick  into  the  sides  of  the  chymney  (to  rest  them- 
selves, their  legs  being  exceeding  short),  where  they  breed 
in  nests  made  like  a swallow’s  nest,  but  of  a glewy  substance  ; 
and  which  is  not  fastened  to  the  chymney  as  a swallow’s  nest, 
but  hangs  down  the  chymney  by  a clew-like  string  a yard 
long.  They  commonly  have  four  or  five  young  ones ; and 
when  they  go  away,  which  is  much  about  the  time  that  swal- 
lows use  to  depart,  they  never  fail  to  throw  down  one  of 
their  young  birds  into  the  room  by  way  of  gratitude.  I have 
more  than  once  observed,  that,  against  the  ruin  of  the  family, 
these  birds  will  suddenly  forsake  the  house,  and  come  no 
more. 

9 There  is  a much  fuller  account  — to  be  noticed  again  — of  our  birds,  in  the  Voy- 
ages, pp.  95-103.  Wood’s  (N.  E.  Prospect,  chap,  viii.)  is  also  curious.  In  the  notes 
which  immediately  follow,  on  the  birds,  beasts,  fishes,  and  reptiles,  the  oldest  writers 
on  our  natural  history  will  be  found  often  to  explain  or  illustrate  each  other. 

10  Chimney-swallow. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


143 


[8]  The  Pilhannaiv.1 

The  pilhannaw,  or  meckquan,  much  like  the  description  of 
the  Indian  ruck ; a monstrous  great  bird ; a kind  of  hawk, 
— some  say  an  eagle  ; four  times  as  big  as  a goshawk ; white- 
mailed  ; having  two  or  three  purple  feathers  in  her  head,  as 
long  as  geeses’  feathers  they  make  pens  of.  The  quills  of 
these  feathers  are  purple,  as  big  as  swans’  quills,  and  trans- 
parent. Her  head  is  as  big  as  a child’s  of  a year  old  ; a very 
princely  bird.  When  she  soars  abroad,  all  sort  of  feathered 
creatures  hide  themselves ; yet  she  never  preys  upon  any  of 
them,  but  upon  fawns  and  jaccals.  She  ayries  in  the  woods 
upon  the  high  hills  of  Ossapy,  and  is  very  rarely  or  seldome 
seen. 

The  Turkie2 

The  turkie,  who  is  blacker  than  ours.  I have  heard  several 
credible  persons  affirm  they  have  seen  turkie-cocks  that  have 


1 “ The  pilhannaw  is  the  king  of  birds  of  prey  in  New  England.  Some  take  him  to 
be  a kind  of  eagle;  others  for  the  Indian  ruck,  — the  biggest  bird  that  is,  except  the 
ostrich.  One  Mr.  Hilton,  living  at  Pascataway,  had  the  hap  to  kill  one  of  them.  Being 
by  the  sea-side,  he  perceived  a great  shadow  over  his  head,  the  sun  shining  out  clear. 
Casting  up  his  eyes,  he  saw  a monstrous  bird  soaring  aloft  in  the  air;  and,  of  a sudden, 
all  the  ducks  and  geese  (there  being  then  a great  many)  dived  under  water,  nothing 
of  them  appearing  but  their  heads,  Mr.  Hilton,  having  made  readie  his  piece,  shot 
and.  brought  her  down  to  the  ground.  How  he  disposed  of  her,  I know  not;  but  had  he 
taken  her  alive,  and  sent  her  over  into  England,  neither  Bartholomew  nor  Sturbridge 
Fair  could  have  produced  such  another  sight.”  — Josselyn's  Voyages,  p.  95.  These 
notices  have  been  taken  to  be  sufficient  by  some  writers  to  show  the  probable  exist- 
ence of  “ a bird  of  prey,  very  large  and  bold,  on  the  back  of  some  of  our  American 
plantations.”  But  our  author’s  account  indicates  clearly  a crested  eagle,  which  we 
cannot  explain  by  any  thing  nearer  home  than  the  yzquautli,  or  crested  vulture  of  Mexico 
and  the  countries  south  of  it  (Falco  Harpyja,  Gmel.);  two  notices  of  which  (cited  by 
Linnaeus)  had  been  published  some  twenty  years  before  Josselyn  wrote,  and  may  have 
been  supposed  by  him  to  be  applicable  to  a large  bird  which  he  had  heard  of  as  inha- 
biting mountains  about  Ossipee.  The  great  heron  — an  inhabitant  of  the  coast,  and 
so  uncommon  inland  that  “ one  . . . shot  in  the  upper  parts  of  New  Hampshire  was 
described  to”  Wilson  “as  a great  curiosity”  (Amer.  Ornith.,  by  Brewer,  p.  555)  — has 
the  size  and  the  crest  of  Josselyn’s  bird;  and,  if  this  last  was  only  (as  is  possible)  the 
name  of  a confused  conception  made  up  from  several  accounts  of  large  birds,  the  heron 
may  well  be  thought  to  have  had  a share  in  it. 

2 “ Of  these,  sometimes  there  will  be  forty,  threescore  and  a hundred,  of  a flock; 
sometimes  more,  and  sometimes  less.  Their  feeding  is  acorns,  hawes,  and  berries: 


144 


ARCHrEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


weighed  forty,  yea,  sixty  pound.  But,  out  of  my  personal, 
experimental  knowledge,  I can  assure  you  that  1 have  eaten 
iny  share  of  a turkie-cock,  that,  when  he  was  pull’d  and  gar- 
bidg’d,  weighed  thirty  [9]  pound  ; and  I have  also  seen  three- 
score broods  of  young  turkies  on  the  side  of  a marsh,  sunning 
of  themselves  in  a morning  betimes.  But  this  was  thirty 
years  since  ; the  English  and  the  Indians  having  now  de- 
stroyed the  breed,  so  that  ’tis  very  rare  to  meet  with  a wild 
turkie  in  the  woods.  But  some  of  the  English  bring  up  great 
store  of  the  wild  kind,  which  remain  about  their  houses  as 
tame  as  ours  in  England. 

The  Goose? 

The  goose,  of  which  there  are  three  kinds,  — the  gray 
goose,  the  white  goose,  and  the  brant.  The  goose  will  live  a 
long  time.  I once  found  in  a white  goose  three  hearts.  She 
was  a very  old  one  ; and  so  tuff,  that  we  gladly  gave  her 
over,  although  exceeding  well  roasted. 


some  of  them  get  a haunt  to  frequent  English  corn.  In  winter,  when  the  snow  covers 
the  ground,  they  resort  to  the  seashore  to  look  for  shrimps,  and  such  small  fishes,  at 
low  tides.  Such  as  love  turkey-hunting  must  follow  it  in  winter,  after  a new-fallen 
snow,  when  he  may  follow  them  by  their  tracks.  Some  have  killed  ten  or  a dozen  in 
half  a day.  If  they  can  be  found  towards  an  evening,  and  watched  where  they  perch, 
— if  one  come  about  ten  or  eleven  of  the  clock,  — he  may  shoot  as  often  as  he  will: 
they  will  sit,  unless  they  be  slenderly  wounded.  These  turkies  remain  all  the  year 
long.  The  price  of  a good  turkey-cock  is  four  shillings;  and  he  is  well  worth  it,- for 
he  may  be  in  weight  forty  pounds:  a hen,  two  shillings.”  — Wood,  N.  Eng.  Prospect, 
chap.  viii.  See  also  Josselyn’s  Voyages,  p.  99. 

3 “ The  geese  of  the  country  be  of  three  sorts.  First,  a brant  goose ; which  is  a 
goose  almost  like  the  wild  goose  in  England.  The  price  of  one  of  these  is  sixpence. 
The  second  kind  is  a white  goose,  almost  as  big  as  an  English  tame  goose.  These 
come  in  great  flocks  about  Michaelmas:  sometimes  there  will  be  two  or  three  thou- 
sand in  a flock.  Those  continue  six  weeks,  and  so  fly  to  the  southward;  returning  in 
March,  and  staying  six  weeks  more,  returning  to  the  northward.  The  price  of  one  of 
these  is  eightpence.  The  third  kind  of  geese  is  a great  grey  goose,  with  a black  neck, 
and  a black  and  white  head;  strong  of  flight:  and  these  be  a great  deal  bigger  than 
the  ordinary  geese  of  England;  some  very  fat,  and,  in  the  spring,  full  of  feathers,  that 
the  shot  can  scarce  pierce  them.  Most  of  these  geese  remain  with  us  from  Michaelmas 
to  April.  They  feed  in  the  sea  upon  grass  in  the  bays  at  low  water,  and  gravel,  and 
in  the  woods  of  acorns;  having,  as  other  fowl  have,  their  pass  and  repass  to  the  north- 
ward and  southward.  The  accurate  marksmen  kill  of  these  both  flying  and  sitting. 
The  price  of  a grey  goose  is  eighteen-pence.” — Wood,  N.  E.  Prospect,  l.  c.  The  white 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


145 


The  Bloody  - Flux  cured. 

A friend  of  mine,  of  good  quality,  living  some  time  in  Vir- 
ginia, was  sore  troubled,  for  a long  time,  with  the  bloody-flux. 
Having  tryed  several  remedies,  by  the  advice  of  his  friends, 
without  any  good  effect,  at  last  was  induced  with  a long- 
ing desire  to  drink  the  fat-dripping  [10]  of  a goose  newly 
taken  from  the  fire ; which  absolutely  cured  him,  who  was  in 
despair  of  ever  recovering  his  health  again. 

The  Gripe  and  Vulture. 

The  gripe,  which  is  of  two  kinds,  — the  one  with  a white 
head,  the  other  with  a black  head : this  we  take  for  the  vul- 
ture. They  are  both  cowardly  kites,* * * 4  preying  upon  fish  cast 


goose  here  mentioned  is  probably  the  snow-goose;  upon  which  compare  Nuttall,  Mass. 

Ornith.,  Water-Birds,  p.  344.  Josselyn  (Voyages,  p.  100)  says  the  brant  and  the  gray 

goose  “are  best  meat;  the  white  are  lean  and  tough,  and  live  a long  time;  whereupon 
ttie  proverb,  ‘ Older  than  a white  goose:  ’ ” which  is  not  supported  by  Wood  or  later 
writers.  The  snow-goose  has  become  much  less  frequent  with  us  since  the  settlement 
of  the  country.  The  great  grey  goose  of  Wood  is  our  well-known  Canada  goose. 

4 This  was  the  best  that  our  author  could  say  of  the  eagles  of  New  England.  Wood 
assists  us  once  more  here:  “The  eagles  of  the  country  be  of  two  sorts,  — one  like  the 
eagles  that  be  in  England;  the  other  is  something  bigger,  with  a great  white  head  and 
white  tail.  These  be  commonlr  called  gripes.”  — New-Eng.  Prospect , l.  c.  The  first 
spoken  of  by  Wood  — and  perhaps,  also,  what  Josselyn  names  last  — may  be  the 
common  or  ring-tailed  eagle,  now  known  to  be  the  young  of  the  golden  eagle.  The 
second  of  Wood,  and  first  of  our  author,  is,  without  doubt,  the  bald  eagle;  the  (so  to 
say)  tyrannical  habits  of  which  bird  are  sufficiently  well  known,  at  least  in  the  vivid 
pages  of  Wilson.  See  the  Voyages,  p.  96;  where  we  learn  also  that  “ hawkes  there 
are  of  several  kinds;  as  goshawks,  falcons,  laniers,  sparrow-hawkes,  and  a little  black 
havvke  highly  prized  by  the  Indians,  who  wear  them  on  their  heads,  and  is  accounted 
of  worth  sufficient  to  ransom  a sagamour.  They  are  so  strangely  couragious  and 
hardie,  that  nothing  fheth  in  the  air  that  they  will  not  bind  with.  I have  seen  them 
tower  so  high,  that  they  have  been  so  small  that  scarcely  could  they  be  taken  bjr  the 
eye”  (p.  95-6).  Wood  makes  like  mention  of  this  little  black  hawk  (New-Eng.  Pro- 
spect, l.  c.);  and  R.  Williams  (Key  into  the  Language  of  the  Indians  of  N.  E.,  in  Hist. 
Coll.,  vol.  iii.  p.  220)  calls  it  “sachim,  a little  bird  about  the  bigness  of  a swallow,  or 
less ; to  which  the  Indians  give  that  name,  because  of  its  sachem  or  prince-like  courage 
and  command  over  greater  birds:  that  a man  shall  often  see  this  small  bird  pursue  and 
vanquish  and  put  to  flight  the  crow  and  other  birds  far  bigger  than  itself.”  This  was 
our  well-known  king-bird;  and  Josselyn,  on  the  same  page,  tells  us  of  “a  small  ash- 

19 


146 


ARCH/EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


up  on  the  shore.  In  the  year  1668,  there  was  a great  mor- 
tality of  eels  in  Casco  Bay : thither  resorted,  at  the  same 
time,  an  infinite  number  of  gripes;  insomuch  that,  being  shot 
by  the  inhabitants,  they  fed  their  hogs  with  them  for  some 
weeks.  At  other  times,  you  shall  seldom  see  above  two  or 
three  in  a dozen  miles’  travelling.  The  quill-feathers  in  their 
wings  make  excellent  text-pens,  and  the  feathers  of  their  tail 
are  highly  esteemed  by  the  Indians  for  their  arrows.  They 
will  not  sing  in  flying.  A gripe’s  tail  is  worth  a beaver’s  skin, 
up  in  the  country. 

A Remedy  for  the  Coldness  and  Pain  of  the  Stomach. 

The  skin  of  a gripe,  drest  with  the  doun  on,  is  good  to  wear 
upon  the  stomach,  for  the  pain  and  coldness  of  it. 

[11]  The  Osprey. 

The  osprey,  which  in  this  country  is  white-mail’d. 

A Remedy  for  the  Toothacli. 

Their  beaks  excell  for  the  toothach  ; picking  the  gums 
therewith  till  they  bleed. 

The  Wobble ,* * * * 5 

The  wobble,  an  ill-shaped  fowl ; having  no  long  feathers  in 
their  pinions,  which  is  the  reason  they  cannot  fly ; not  much 
unlike  the  pengwin.  They  are  in  the  spring  very  fat,  or 
rather  oyly ; but  pull’d  and  garbidg’d,  and  laid  to  the  fire  to 
roast,  they  yield  not  one  drop. 


colour  bird  that  is  shaped  like  ahawke,  with  talons  and  beak,  that  falleth  upon  crowes; 

mounting  up  into  the  air  after  them,  and  will  beat  them  till  they  make  them  cry:” 

which  was,  perhaps,  the  king-bird’s  half-cousin,  as  Wilson  calls  him, — -the  purple- 

martin. 

5 Nuttall  (Manual,  Water-Birds,  p.  520)  says  that  the  young  of  the  red-throated 
diver  is  called  cobble  in  England.  Our  author  elsewhere  (Voyages,  p.  101)  makes 
mention  of  the  “wobble”  and  the  “wilmote”  (that  is,  guillemot)  as  distinct;  but 
his  wilmot  was  “ a kind  of  teal.” 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


147 


For  Aches. 

Our  way  (for  they  are  very  soveraign  for  aches)  is  to  make 
mummy  of  them ; that  is,  to  salt  them  well,  and  dry  them  in 
an  earthen  pot  well  glazed  in  an  oven:  or  else  (which  is  the 
better  way)  to  burn  them  under  ground  for  a day  or  two ; 
then  quarter  them,  and  stew  them  in  a tin  stewpan,  with  a 
very  little  water. 


[12]  The  Loone. 

The  loone  is  a water-fowl,  alike  in  shape  to  the  wobble,  and 
as  virtual  for  aches ; which  we  order  after  the  same  manner.6 

The  Old. 

The  owl,  Avis  devia,  which  are  of  three  kinds,  ■ — - the  great 
gray  owl  with  ears ; the  little  gray  owl ; and  the  white  owl, 
which  is  no  bigger  than  a thrush.7 

The  Turkie- Buzzard. 

The  turkie-buzzard,  a kind  of  kite,  but  as  big  as  a turkie ; 
brown  of  color,  and  very  good  meat.8 

What  Birds  are  not  to  he  found  in  New  England. 

Now,  by  what  the  country  hath  not,  you  may  ghess  at 
what  it  hath.  It  hath  no  nightingals,  nor  larks,  nor  bul- 


6 “ He  maketh  a noise  sometimes  like  a sow-geider’s  horn.”  — N.  Eng.  Prospect,  l.  c. 

t The  first  is  the  great-horned  or  cat-owl:  the  second,  probably,  the  mottled  or 
little  screech-owl,  which  Wood  notices  more  fully  as  “small,  speckled  like  a partridge  j 
with  ears”  (/.  c .);  and  the  third,  the  Acadian  or  little  owl.  There  are  hut  two  owls 
reckoned  in  New-England’s  Prospect;  the  second  of  which  — “a  great  owl,  almost  as 
big  as  an  eagle;  his  body  being  as  good  meat  as  a partridge”  (l.  c.)— is,  perhaps,  the 
snowy  owl,  which,  according  to  Audubon,  is  good  eating.  — Peabody  Report  on  Birds  of 
Mass.,  p.  275. 

8 It  is  not  clear  what  is  meant  here.  The  author  merely  mentions  the  bird  again, 
in  Voyages,  p.  96. 


148 


ARC'ILEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


finches,  nor  sparrows,  nor  blackbirds,  nor  mag[12]pies,  nor 
jackdawes,  nor  popinjays,  nor  rooks,  nor  pheasants,  nor  wood- 
cocks, nor  quails,  nor  robins,  nor  cuckoes,  &c.9 


SECONDLY,  OF  BEASTS.1 

The  Bear , ivhich  are  generally  Black.2 

The  bear.  They  live  four  months  in  caves  ; that  is,  all  win- 
ter. In  the  spring,  they  bring  forth  their  young  ones.  They 


9 So  Wood : “ There  ore  no  magpies,  jackdaws,  cuckoos,  jays,  &c.”  — New-England' s 
Prospect,  l.  c.  Our  author,  in  his  Voyages,  adds  to  the  above  list  of  New-England 
birds  the  following:  “The  partridge  is  larger  than  ours;  white-flesht,  but  very  dry: 
they  are  indeed  a sort  of  partridges  called  grooses.  The  pidgeon,  of  which  there  are 
millions  of  millions.  . . . The  snow-bird,  like  a chaf-finch,  go  in  flocks,  and  are  good 
meat.  . . . Thrushes,  with  red  breasts,  which  will  be  very  fat,  and  are  good  meat.  . . . 
Thressels,  . . . filladies,  . . . small  singing-birds;  ninmurders, little  yellow  birds ; New- 
England  nightingales,  painted  with  orient  colours,  — black,  white,  blew,  yellow,  green, 
and  scarlet,  — and  sing  sweetly;  wood-larks,  wrens,  swallows,  who  will  sit  upon  trees; 
and  starlings,  black  as  ravens,  with  scarlet  pinions.  Other  sorts  of  birds  there  are;  as 
the  troculus,  wagtail  or  dish-water,  which  is  here  of  a brown  colour;  titmouse,  — two 
or  three  sorts;  the  dunneck  or  hedge-sparrow,  who  is  starke  naked  in  his  winter  nest; 
the  golden  or  yellow  hammer, — a bird  about  the  bigness  of  a thrush,  that  is  all  over 
as  red  as  bloud;  woodpeckers  of  two  or  three  sorts,  gloriously  set  out  with  variety  of 
glittering  colours;  the  colibry,  viemalin,  or  rising  or  walking-bird,  — an  emblem  of  the 
resurrection,  and  the  wonder  of  little  birds.  The  water-fowl  are  these  that  follow: 
Hookers,  or  wild  swans;  cranes;  . . . four  sorts  of  ducks,  — a black  duck,  a brown 
duck  like  our  wild  ducks,  a grey  duck,  and  a great  black  and  white  duck.  These  fre- 
quent rivers  and  ponds.  But,  of  ducks,  there  be  many  more  sorts ; as  hounds,  old  wives, 
murres,  doies,  shell-drakes,  shoulers  or  shoflers,  widgeons,  simps,  teal,  blew-wing'd 
and  green-wing’d  didapers  or  dipchicks,  fenduck,  duckers  or  moorhens,  coots,  poch- 
ards (a  water-fowl  like  a duck),  plungeons  (a  kind  of  water-fowl,  with  a long,  reddish 
bill),  puets,  plovers,  smethes,  wilmotes  (a  kind  of  teal),  godwits,  humilities,  knotes, 
red-sliankes,  . . . gulls,  white  gulls  or  sea-cobbs,  caudemandies,  herons,  grey  bitterns, 
ox-eyes,  birds  called  oxen  and  keen,  petterels,  king’s  fishers,  . . . little  birds  that  fre- 
quent the  sea-shore  in  flocks,  called  sauderlins.  They  are  about  the  bigness  of  a spar- 
row, and,  in  the  fall  of  the  leaf,  will  be  all  fat.  When  I was  first  in  the  countrie  ” (that 
is,  in  1638;  in  which  connection,  what  follows  is  not  without  its  interest  to  us),  “the 
English  cut  them  into  small  pieces  to  put  into  their  puddings,  instead  of  suet.  I have 
known  twelve-score  and  above  killed  at  two  shots.  . . . The  cormorant,  shape  or 
sharke”  (pp.  99-103). 

1 Compare  the  account  given  in  the  Voyages,  pp.  82-95,  which  is  much  fuller;  as 
also  New-England’s  Prospect,  chap.  vi. 

2 “ Most  fierce  in  strawberry-time;  at  which  time  they  have  young  ones;  at  which 
time,  likewise,  they  will  go  upright,  like  a man,  and  climb  trees,  and  swim  to  the 


NEW-ENGLAXD  S RARITIES  DISCOVERED. 


149 


seldome  have  above  three  cubbs  in  a litter;  are  very  fat  in 
the  fall  of  the  leaf,  with  feeding  npon  acorns  ; at  which  time 
they  are  excellent  venison.  Their  brains  are  venomous. 
They  feed  much  upon  water-plantane  in  the  spring'  and  sum- 
mer, and  berries,  and  also  upon  a shell-fish  called  a horse- 
foot;  and  are  never  mankind  — i.e.,  fierce  — but  in  rutting- 
time  ; and  then  they  walk  the  country,  — twenty,  thirty,  forty, 
in  a company,- — -making  a hideous  noise  with  roaring,  which 
you  may  hear  a mile  or  two  before  they  come  so  near  as  to 
endanger  the  traveller.  About  four  years  since,  acorns  being 
very  scarce  up  in  the  country,  some  numbers  of  them  came 
down  [14]  amongst  the  English  plantations,  which  generally 
are  by  the  sea-side.  At  one  town  called  Gorgiana,  in  the 
Province  of  Meyn  (called  also  New  Sommersetshire),  they 
kill’d  fourscore. 


For  Aches  and  Cold  Swellings. 

Their  grease  is  very  good  for  aches  and  cold  swellings. 
The  Indians  anoint  themselves  therewith  from  top  to  toe ; 
which  hardens  them  against  the  cold  weather.  A black  bear’s 
skin  heretofore  was  worth  forty  shillings ; now  you  may  have 
one  for  ten : much  used  by  the  English  for  beds  and  cover- 
lets, and  by  the  Indians  for  coats. 

For  Pain  and  Lameness  upon  Cold. 

One  Edw.  Andrews,  being  foxt,8  and  falling  backward  cross 
a thought4  in  a shallop  or  fisher-boat,  and  taking  cold  upon 


islands:  which  if  the  Indians  see,  there  will  be  more  sportful  bear-baiting  than  Paris 
garden  can  afford;  for,  seeing  the  bears  take  water,  an  Indian  will  leap  after  him; 
where  they  go  to  water-cuffs  for  bloody  noses  and  scratched  sides.  In  the  end,  the 
man  gets  the  victory;  riding  the  bear  over  the  watery  plain,  till  he  can  bear  him  no 
longer.  . . . There  would  be  more  of  them,  if  it  were  not  for  the  wolves  which  devour 
them.  A kennel  of  those  ravening  runagadoes,  setting  rrpon  a poor,  single  bear,  will 
tear  him  as  a dog  will  tear  a kid.”  — New-Eng.  Prospect,  l.  c.,  which  see  farther;  and 
also  Josselyn’s  Voyages,  pp.  91-2. 

8 Stupefied  with  drink.  — Webster,  Eng.  Diet. 

4 Thwart. 


150 


ARCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


it,  grew  crooked,  lame,  and  full  of  pain ; was  cured,  lying 
one  winter  upon  bears’  skins  newly  Head  off,  with  some  upon 
him,  so  that  he  sweat  every  night. 

The  Wolf.5 

The  wolf,  of.  which  there  are  two  kinds,  — one  with  a round- 
ball’d  foot,  and  [15]  are  in  shape  like  mungrel  mastiffs;  the 
other  with  a flat  foot.  These  are  liker  greyhounds ; and  are 
called  deer-wolfs,  because  they  are  accustomed  to  prey  upon 
deer.  A wolf  will  eat  a wolf  new-dead : and  so  do  bears,  as 
I suppose ; for  their  dead  carkases  are  never  found,  neither 
by  the  Indian  nor  English.  They  go  a-clicketing  twelve  days, 
and  have  as  many  whelps  at  a litter  as  a bitch.  The  Indian 
dog6  is  a creature  begotten  ’twixt  a wolf  and  a fox;  which 
the  Indians,  lighting  upon,  bring  up  to  hunt  the  deer  with. 
The  wolf  is  very  numerous,  and  go  in  companies,  — sometimes 
ten,  twenty,  more  or  fewer;  and  so  cunning,  that  seldome 
any  are  kill’d  with  guns  or  traps : but,  of  late,  they  have 
invented  a way  to  destroy  them,  by  binding  foui'  maycril- 
hooks  a cross  with  a brown  thread ; and  then,  wrapping  some 
wool  about  them,  they  dip  them  in  melted  tallow  till  it  be 
as  round  and  as  big  as  an  egg.  These  (when  any  beast  hath 
been  kill’d  by  the  wolves)  they  scatter  by  the  dead  carkase, 


5 “ The  woolves  be  in  some  respect  different  from  them  in  other  countries.  It  was 
never  known  yet  that  a wolf  ever  set  upon  a man  or  woman:  neither  do  they  trouble 
horses  or  cows;  but  swine,  goats,  and  red  calves,  which  they  take  for  deer,  be  often 
destroyed  by  them;  so  that  a red  calf  is  cheaper  than  a black  one,  in  that  regard, 
in  some  places.  . . . They  be  made  mugh  like  a mungrel ; being  big-boned,  lank- 
paunched,  deep-breasted;  having  a thick  neck  and  head,  prick  ears  and  long  snout, 
with  dangerous  teeth ; long,  staring  hair,  and  a great  bush-tail.  It  is  thought  by  many 
that  our  English  mastiff  might  be  too  hard  for  them : but  it  is  no  such  matter;  for  they 
care  no  more  for  an  ordinary  mastiff  than  an  ordinary  mastiff  cares  for  a cur.  Many 
good  dogs  have  been  spoiled  by  them.  . . . There  is  little  hope  of  their  utter  destruc- 
tion; the  country  being  so  spacious,  and  they  so  numerous,  travelling  in  the  swamps 
by  kennels:  sometimes  ten  or  twelve  are  of  a company.  ...  In  a word,  they  be  the 
greatest  inconveniency  the  country  hath.”  — New- England's  Prospect,  l.  c. 

6 Spoken  of  again  in  the  Voyages,  pp.  94  and  193;  and  in  Hubbard,  Hist.  N.  Eng- 
land, p.  25.  Josselyn’s  may  be  compared  with  Lewis  and  Clark’s  notice  of  the  Indian 
dog  (Travels,  vol.  ii.  p.  165). 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


151 


after  they  have  beaten  off  the  wolves.  About  midnight,  the 
wolves  are  sure  to  return  again  to  the  place  where  they  left 
the  slaughtered  beast;  and  the  [16]  first  thing  they  venture 
upon  will  be  these  balls  of  fat. 

For  Old  Aches. 

A black  wolf’s  skin  is  worth  a beaver-skin  among  the  In- 
dians ; being  highly  esteemed  for  helping  old  aches  in  old 
people  ; worn  as  a coat.  They  are  not  mankind,  as  in  Ireland 
and  other  countries ; but  do  much  harm  by  destroying  of  our 
English  cattle. 


The  Ounce.'' 

The  ounce,  or  wild-cat,  is  about  the  bigness  of  two  lusty 
ram-cats  : preys  upon  deer  and  our  English  poultrey.  I once 
found  six  whole  ducks  in  the  belly  of  one  I killed  by  a pond- 
side.  Their  flesh  roasted  is  as  good  as  lamb,  and  as  white. 

For  Aches  and  Shrunk  Sineivs. 

Their  grease  is  soveraign  for  all  manner  of  aches  and 
shrunk  sinews.  Their  skins  are  accounted  good  fur,  but 
somewhat  course. 

[17]  The  Raccoon .7 8 

The  raccoon  liveth  in  hollow  trees,  and  is  about  the  size  of 
a gib-cat.  They  feed  upon  mass,  and  do  infest  our  Indian- 


7 Called  also  “lusern,  or  luceret,”  in  the  Voyages,  p.  85;  the  loup-cervier  of  Sa- 
gard  (Hist.  Can.,  1636,  cit.  Aud.  and  Bachm.  Vivip.  Quadr.  N.  A.,  p.  136);  of  Dobbs’s 
Hudson’s  Bay,  &c. ; but  more  commonly  called  gray  cat,  or  lynx,  in  New  England. 
Wood  calls  it  “more  dangerous  to  be  met  withal  than  any  other  creature;  not  fearing 
either  dog  orman.  He  useth  to  kill  deer.  . . . He  hath  likewise  a device  to  get  geese: 
for,  being  much  of  the  colour  of  a goose,  he  will  place  himself  close  by  the  water; 
holding  up  his  bob-tail,  which  is  like  a goose-neck.  The  geese,  seeing  this  counter- 
feit goose,  approach  nigh  to  visit  him;  who,  with  a sudden  jerk,  apprehends  his  mis- 
trustless prey.  The  English  kill  many  of  these,  accounting  them  very  good  meat.”  — 
New-Eng.  Prospect , l.  c.  Audubon  and  Bachman  (l.  c.,  p.  14)  give  a similar  good  ac- 
count of  the  flesh  of  the  bay-lynx,  or  common  wild-cat. 

8 The  raccoon  is,  or  has  been,  an  inhabitant  of  all  North  America  (Godman,  Nat. 
Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  117),  and  was  one  of  the  first  of  our  animals  with  which  European 


152 


ARCH.EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


corn  very  much.  They  will  be  exceeding  fat  in  autumn. 
Their  flesh  is  somewhat  dark,  but  good  food  roasted. 

For  Bruises  and  Aches. 

Their  fat  is  excellent  for  bruises  and  aches.  Their  skins 
are  esteemed  a good,  deep  fur ; but  yet,  as  the  wild-cats, 
somewhat  course. 


The  Porcupine. 

The  porcupine,  in  some  parts  of  the  countrey  eastward 
towards  the  French,  are  as  big  as  an  ordinary  mungrel  cur ; 
a very  angry  creature,  and  dangerous,- — shooting  a whole 
shower  of  quills  with  a rowse  at  their  enemies ; which  are  of 
that  nature,  that,  wherever  they  stick  in  the  flesh,  they  will 
work  through  in  a short  time,  if  not  prevented  by  pulling  of 
them  out.  The  Indians  make  use  of  their  quills,  which  are 
hardly  a handful  long,  to  adorn  [18J  the  edges  of  their  birchen 
dishes;  and  weave  (dying  some  of  them  red,  others  yellow 
and  blew)  curious  bags  or  pouches,  in  Avorks  like  Turkie- 
work.* * * * * 9 


The  Beaver , Canis  Ponticus  Ampliibius.1 

The  beaver,  whose  old  ones  are  as  big  as  an  otter,  or  rather 
bigger  ; a creature  of  a rare  instinct,  as  may  apparently  be 
seen  in  their  artificial  dam-heads  to  raise  the  water  in  the 
ponds  where  they  keep ; and  their  houses  having  three 
stories ; which  would  be  too  large  to  discourse.  They  have 
all  of  them  four  cods  hanging  outwardly  betAveen  their  hinder 


naturalists  became  acquainted.  Linnaeus  (Svst.  Nat.)  cites  Conrad  Gesner  among 

those  who  have  illustrated  or  mentioned  it.  Wood  says  they  are  “as  good  meat  as  a 

lamb;”  and  further,  that,  “in  the  moonshine  night,  they  go  to  feed  on  clams  at  a low 

tide,  by  the  seaside,  where  the  English  hunt  them  with  their  dogs.”  — New- Eng.  Pro- 

spect, l.  c. 

9 The  author’s  account  of  the  Indian  works  in  birch-bark  and  porcupine-quills  is 
much  fuller  in  his  Voyages,  p.  143. 

1 Wood’s  account  is  far  better.  — New-Eng.  Prospect , chap.  vii.  See  page  53  of  the 
Rarities  for  mention  of  the  musk  quash. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


153 


legs  : two  of  them  are  soft  or  oyly,  and  two  solid  or  hard. 
The  Indians  say  they  are  hermaphrodites. 

For  Wind  in  the  Stomach. 

Their  solid  cods  are  much  used  in  physick.  Our  English 
women  in  this  country  use  the  powder,  grated  — as  much  as 
will  lye  upon  a shilling  — in  a draught  of  Fiol  wine,  for  wind 
in  the  stomach  and  belly ; and  venture  many  times,  in  such 
cases,  to  give  it  to  women  with  child.  Their  tails  are  flat, 
and  covered  with  scales,  without  hair  ; [19]  which,  being  flead 
off,  and  the  tail  boiled,  proves  exceeding  good  meat;  being 
all  fat,  and  as  sweet  as  marrow. 

The  Moose-Beer .2 

The  moose-deer,  which  is  a very  goodly  creature,  — some  of 
them  twelve  foot  high ; with  exceeding  fair  horns,  with  broad 
palms,  — some  of  them  two  fathom  from  the  tip  of  one  horn 
to  the  other.  They  commonly  have  three  fawns  at  a time. 
Their  flesh  is  not  dry,  like  deer’s  flesh,  but  moist  and  lush- 
ious ; somewhat  like  horse-flesh  (as  they  judge  that  have 
tasted  of  both),  but  very  wholsome.  The  flesh  of  their 
fawns  is  an  incomparable  dish  ; beyond  the  flesh  of  an  asses 
foal,  so  highly  esteemed  by  the  Romans;  or  that  of  young 
spaniel-puppies,  so  much  cried  up  in  our  days  in  France  and 
England. 


2 See  Voyages,  pp.  88-91.  Called  moos-soog  (rendered  “great-ox;  or,  rather,  red 
deer”)  in  R.  Williams’s  Key  (Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  iii.  p.  223):  but  this  is  rather  the  plural 
form  of  moos ; as  see  the  same,  l.  c.  p.  222,  and  note,  and  Rasies’  Diet.  Abnaki,  in  loco. 
It  is  called  mongsoa  by  the  Cree  Indians;  and,  it  should  seem,  mongsoos  by  the  Indians 
of  the  neighborhood  of  Carlton  House;  as  see  Richardson,  in  Sabine’s  Appendix  to 
Franklin’s  Narrative  of  a Journey  to  the  Polar  Sea,  pp.  665-6.  “The  English,”  says 
Wood,  “have  some  thoughts  of  keeping  him  tame,  and  to  accustome  him  to  the  yoke; 
which  will  be  a great  commodity.  . . . There  be  not  many  of  these  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay;  but,  forty  miles  to  the  north-east,  there  be  great  store  of  them.”  — New- 
Eng.  Prospect , l.  c.  On  hunting  the  moose,  as  practised  by  the  Indians,  see  Josselyn’s 
Voyages,  p.  136. 


20 


154 


ARCILEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Moose-horns  better  for  Pliysick  Use  than  Marts' -horns. 

Their  horns  are  far  better,  in  my  opinion,  for  physick,  than 
the  horns  of  other  deer,  as  being  of  a stronger  nature.  As 
for  their  claws,  which  both  Englishmen  and  French  make  use 
of  for  elk,  I cannot  [20]  approve  so  to  be  from  the  elfects ; 
having  had  some  trial  of  it.  Besides,  all  that  write  of  the 
elk  describe  him  with  a tuft  of  hair  on  the  left  leg,  behind, 
a little  above  the. pastern  joynt  on  the  outside  of  the  leg, — 
not  unlike  the  tuft  (as  I conceive)  that  groweth  upon  the 
breast  of  a turkie-cock  ; which  I could  never  yet  see  upon  the 
leg  of  a moose,  and  I have  seen  some  number  of  them. 

For  Children  breeding  Teeth. 

The  Indian  webbes  make  use  of  the  broad  teeth  of  the 
fawns  to  hang  about  their  children’s  neck,  when  they  are 
breeding  of  their  teeth.  The  tongue  of  a grown  moose, 
dried  in  the  smoak  after  the  Indian  manner,  is  a dish  for  a 
sagamor. 

The  Maecarib.3 

The  maecarib,  caribo,  or  pohano ; a kind  of  deer,  as  big  as 
a stag;  round-hooved,  smooth-hair’d,  and  soft  as  silk.  Their 
horns  grow  backwards  along  their  backs  to  their  rumps,  and 
turn  again  a handful  beyond  their  nose  ; having  another  horn 
in  the  middle  of  their  forehead,  about  half  a yard  long, — 
very  straight,  but  [21]  wreathed  like  an  unicorn’s  horn,  — of 
a brown,  jettie  colour,  and  very  smooth.  The  creature  is  no- 
where to  be  found  but  upon  Cape  Sable,  in  the  French  quar- 
ters ; and  there,  too,  very  rarely ; they  being  not  numerous. 
Some  few  of  their  skins  and  their  streight  horns  are  (but 
very  sparingly)  brought  to  the  English. 


3 Wood  (N.  E.  Prospect,  l.  c.)  has  but  two  kinds  of  deer:  of  which  the  first  is  the 
moose;  and  the  second,  called  “ ordinary  deer,”  and,  in  the  vocabulary  of  Indian  words, 
oltucJc  (compare  altuck  or  noonatch , deer,  — R.  Williams,  l.  c. ; but  atteylc,  in  the  Cree 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


155 


The  Fox} 

The  fox,  which  differeth  not  much  from  ours,  but  are  some- 
what less.  A black-fox  skin  heretofore  was  wont  to  be  valued 
at  fifty  and  sixty  pound ; but  now  you  may  have  them  for 
twenty  shillings.  Indeed,  there  is  not  any  in  New  England 


dialect,  signifies  a small  sort  of  rein-deer,  — Richardson,  in  Appendix  to  Franklin’s 
Journey,  p.  665 ; and  it  is  observable  that  Rasies’  word  for  chevreuil  is  norice ),  is  our 
American  fallow-deer.  R.  Williams  also  appears  to  distinguish  with  clearness  but  two; 
which  are,  perhaps,  the  same  as  Wood’s.  Josselvn,  in  this  book,  passes  quite  over 
the  common,  or  fallow-deer:  but,  making  up  in  the  Voyages  for  the  fallings-short  of  the 
Rarities,  he  goes,  in  the  former,  quite  the  other  way;  reckoning  the  roe,  buck,  red  deer, 
rein-deer,  elk,  maurouse,  and  maccarib.  What  is  further  said  of  these  animals,  where 
he  speaks  more  at  large,  makes  it  appear  likely  that  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
names,  so  far  as  they  have  any  value,  belong  to  a single  kind,  — the  “ordinary  deer” 
of  Wood  (whose  description  possibly  helped  Josselyn’s),  or  our  fallow-deer;  to  which 
the  “roe”  is  also  to  be  referred:  and  the  “elk”  he  himself  explains  as  the  moose. 
But,  beside  these  two  kinds,  Josselyn  has  the  merit  of  indicating,  with  some  distinct- 
ness, one,  or  possibly  two,  others,  — the  maurov.se  and  the  maccarib.  The  maurouse 
■ — of  which  only  the  Voyages  make  mention  — “is  somewhat  like  a moose;  but  his 
horns  are  but  small,  and  himself  about  the  size  of  a stag.  These  are  the  deer  that  the 
flat-footed  wolves  hunt  after.”  — Voyages,  p.  91.  This  is  to  be  compared  with  the  mau- 
roos,  rendered  “ cerf,"  of  Rasies’  Diet.,  1.  c.,  p.  382;  and,  in  such  connection,  is  hardly 
referable  to  other  than  the  caribou , or  reindeer,  — a well-known  inhabitant  of  the  north- 
eastern parts  of  New  England,  and  likely,  therefore,  to  have  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
our  author;  while  there  seems  to  be  no  testimony  to  its  ever  having  occurred  in  Mas- 
sachusetts and  southward,  where  Wood  and  Williams  made  their  observations.  The 
last,  or  the  maccarib , caribo , or  pbha.no , of  Josselyn,  is  described  above ; and,  in  the 
Voyages  (p.  91),  he  only  repeats  that  it  “is  not  found,  that  ever  I heard  yet,  but  upon 
Cape  Sable,  near  to  the  French  plantations.”  The  “round”  hoofs  of  the  maccarib 
might  lead  us  to  take  this  for  the  caribou  of  Maine;  the  round  track  of  which  differs 
much  from  that  of  the  fallow-deer.  But  the  former  is  more  likely  to  have  been  the 
American  elk;  so  rare,  it  should  seem,  where  it  occurred,  when  our  author  wrote, 
and  so  little  known  in  the  New-England  settlements,  that  his  fancy,  fed  by  darkling 
hearsay,  could  deck  it  with  the  honors  of  the  “ unicorn.” 

i “ There  are  two  or  three  kinds  of  them,  — one  a great  yellow  fox;  another  grey, 
who  will  climb  up  into  trees.  The  black  fox  is  of  much  esteem.”  — Josselyn' s Voyages, 
p.  82 ; where  is  also  an  account  of  the  way  of  hunting  foxes  in  New  England.  Wood 
has  nothing  special,  but  that  some  of  the  foxes  “ be  black.  Their  furrs  is  of  much 
esteem”  (l.  c.).  Williams  ( l . c.)  has  “ mishquashim,  a red  fox;  pequaums,  a gray  fox. 
The  Indians  say  they  have  black  foxes,  which  they  have  often  seen,  but  never  could 
take  any  of  them.  They  say  they  are  manittooes.”  Beside  the  common  red  fox,  or 
mishquashim,  we  have  in  all  these  accounts  — and  also  in  Morell’s  Nova  Anglia,  l.  c., 
p.  129  — mention  of  a black  fox;  which  may  have  been  the  true  black  or  silver  fox, 
or,  in  part  at  least,  the  more,  common  cross-fox  (Aud.  and  Bachm.,  Viv.  Quadr.  N.  A., 
p.  45);  the  pelt  of  which  is  also  in  high  esteem.  For  Williams’s  gray  fox,  see  the  next 
note.  Josselyn’s  climbing  gray  fox  is  perhaps  the  fisher  ( Mustela  Canadensis,  Schreb.), 
notwithstanding  the  color.  According  to  Audubon  (l.  c.,  pp.  51,  310,  315),  this  is  called 
the  black  fox  in  New  England  and  the  northern  couuties  of  New  York.  I have  heard 
'it  more  often  called  black  cat  in  New  Hampshire. 


156 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


that  are  perfectly  black,  but  silver-kair’d  ; that  is,  sprinkled 
with  grey  hairs. 

The  Jaccalh 

The  jaccal  is  a creature  that  hunts  the  lion’s  prey, — a 
shrew’d  sign  that  there  are  lions  upon  the  continent.  There 
are  those  that  are  yet  living  in  the  countrey  that  do  con- 
stantly affirm,  that,  about  six  or  seven  and  thirty  years  since, 
an  Indian  [22]  shot  a young  lion,6 7  sleeping  upon  the  body  of 
an  oak  blown  up  by  the  roots,  with  an  arrow,  not  far  from 
Cape  Anne,  and  sold  the  skin  to  the  English.  But,  to  say 
something  of  the  jaccal,  they  are  ordinarily  less  than  foxes, 
of  the  colour  of  a gray  rabbet,  and  do  not  scent  nothing  near 
so  strong  as  a fox.  Some  of  the  Indians  will  eat  of  them. 
Their  grease  is  good  for  all  that  fox-grease  is  good  for,  but 
weaker.  They  are  very  numerous. 

The  Hare? 

The  hare,  in  New  England,  is  no  bigger  than  our  English 
rabbets ; of  the  same  colour,  but  withall  having  yellow  and 
black  strokes  down  the  ribs.  In  winter  they  are  milk-white  ; 
and,  as  the  spring  approacheth,  they  come  to  their  colour 


6 “ A creature  much  like  a fox,  but  smaller.”  — Voyages,  p.  83.  Probably  the  gray 
fox,  called  peqziawus  by  R.  Williams  ( I ’wipes  Virginianus,  Schreb.);  which  has  not  the 
rank  smell  of  the  red  fox. — Aud.  and  Bachm.,  1.  c.,  p.  168. 

6 “ They  told  me  of  a young  lyon  (not  long  before)  kill’d  at  Piscataway  by  an  In- 
dian.”— Voyages,  p.  23.  Higginson  says  that  lions  “have  been  seen  at  Cape  Anne.”  — 
New-Eng.  Plantation,  l.  c.,  p.  119.  “ Some  affirm,”  says  Wood,  “that  they  have  seen  a 
lion  at  Cape  Anne.  . . . Besides,  Plimouth  men”  (that  is,  men  of  old  Plymouth,  it  is 
likely)  “ have  traded  for  lion-skins  in  former  times.  But  sure  it  is  that  there  be  lions 
on  that  continent;  for  the  Virginians  saw  an  old  lion  in  their  plantation,”  &c.  — New- 
Eng.  Prospect,  l.  c.  The  animal  here  spoken  of  may  well  have  been  the  puma  or 
cougar,  or  American  lion. 

7 “ The  rabbits  be  much  like  ours  in  England.  The  hai'es  be  some  of  them  white, 
and  a yard  long.  These  two  harmless  creatures  are  glad  to  shelter  themselves  from 
the  harmful  foxes  in  hollow  trees;  having  a hole  at  the  entrance  no  bigger  than  they 
can  creep  in  at.”  — Wood,  New-Eng.  Prospect,  l.  c.  Wood’s  rabbit  and  Josselyn’s  hare, 
so  far  as  the  summer  coloring  goes,  appear  to  be  the  gray  rabbit  (Lepus  syloaticus , Aud. 
and  Bachm.,  l.c.,  p.  173);  and  the  white  hare  of  Wood  — as  also,  probably,  the  hare, 
“milk-white  in  winter,”  of  Josselyn  — is  doubtless  the  northern  hare  ( Lepus  Ameri- 
canus,  Erxl.,  Aud.  and  Bachm.,  1.  c.,  p.  93). 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


157 


When  the  snow  lies  upon  the  ground,  they  are  very  bitter 
with  feeding  upon  the  bark  of  spruce  and  the  like.8 


[23]  THIRDLY,  OF  FISHES.9 

Pliny  and  Isadore  write,  there  are  not  above  a hundred 
and  forty-four  kinds  of  fishes ; but,  to  my  knowledge,  there 
are  nearer  three  hundred.  I suppose  America  was  not  known 
to  Pliny  and  Isadore. 

A Catalogue  of  Fish ; that  is,  of  those  that  are  to  he  seen  be- 
tween the  English  Coast  and  America,  and  those  proper  to  the 
Countrey. 

Alderling.  : Anchova,  or  sea-minnow. 

Alize,  alewife  (because  great-bel-  j Aleport. 
lied),  olafle,  oldwife,  allow.1 


8 The  Voyages  mention,  beside  the  quadrupeds  above  named,  also  the  skunk 
( seganhoo  of  Rasies’  Diet.,  1.  c.);  the  musquash  ( mooskooessno  of  Rasies,  l.  c.),  for 
which  see  also  p.  53  of  this;  otter;  marten,  “as  ours  are  in  England,  but  blacker;” 
sable,  “ much  of  the  size  of  a mattrise,  perfect  black,  but  ...  I never  saw  but  two  of 
them  in  eight  years’ space ; ” the  squirrel,  “ three  sorts,  — the  mouse-squirril,  the  gray 
squirril,  and  the  flying-squirril  (called  by  the  Indian  assapanich).”  Our  author’s 
mouse-squirrel,  which  he  describes,  is  the  ground  or  striped  squirrel : probably  the 
“ anequus,  a little  coloured  squirrel  ” of  R.  Williams,  l.  c.;  and  the  anikoosess  (rendered 
suisse)  of  Rasies,  l.  c.  The  mattrise  of  our  author  is,  according  to  him,  “ a creature 
whose  head  and  fore-parts  is  shaped  somewhat  like  a lyon’s;  not  altogether  so  big  as  a 
house-cat.  They  are  innumerable  up  in  the  countrey,  and  are  esteemed  good  furr.”  — 
Voyages,  p.  87.  The  sable  is  compared  with  the  mattrise,  at  least  in  size;  and  the  name 
is  perhaps  comparable  with  mallegooessoo  of  Rasies,  l.  c. ; but  this  is  rendered  lievre. 
Wood  adds  to  this  list  of  our  quadrupeds,  mistakenly,  the  ferret;  and  R.  Williams,  the 
“ ockquutchaun-nug, — a wild  beast  of  a reddish  hair,  about  the  bigness  of  a pig,  and 
rooting  like  a pig;”  which  seems  to  answer,  in  name  as  well  as  habits,  to  our  wood- 
chuck, or  ground-hog. 

9 The  author’s  attempt  here  at  a general  catalogue  of  the  fishes,  mollusks,  &c.,  of 
the  North- Atlantic  Ocean,  affords  but  a poor  make-shift  for  such  a list  as  we  might 
fairly  have  expected  from  him  of  the  species  known  to  the  early  fishermen  in  the 
waters  and  seas  of  New  England!  and  the  account  in  his  Voyages  (pp.  104-15)  is 
again  an  improvement  on  the  present,  and  is  confined  to  the  inhabitants  of  our  waters. 
I have  printed  the  names  of  such  species,  in  the  following  list,  as  the  author  (either  in 
this  book  or  in  his  Voyages)  attributes  to  New  England,  in  Italics.  Beyond  this,  the 
present  editor  has  little  to  offer  in  elucidation  of  the  list;  which  indeed,  in  good  part, 
appears  sufficiently  intelligible.  Compare  Wood,  New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap.  x. 

1 “ Like  a herrin,  but  has  a bigger  bellie;  therefore  called  an  alewife.”  — Voyages, 
p.  107.  The  other  names,  alize  and  allow,  are  doubtless  corruptions  of  the  French 


158 


ARCH.ZEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Albicore.'1 2 

Barbie. 

Barraclia. 

Barracoutha,  a fish  peculiar  to  the 
West  Indies.3 4 

Barsticle. 

Basse.* 

Sea-bishop,  proper  to  the  Norway 
seas. 

[24]  River  bleak  or  bley,  a river- 
swallow. 

Sea  bleak  or  bley,  or  sea-came- 
lion. 

Blew-fish,  or  hound-fish,  two  kinds, 
— speckled  hound-fish  and  blew 
hound-fish  (called  horse-fish5). 

Bonito,  or  dozada,  or  Spanish  dol- 
phin.6 * 


River-bream. 

Sea-bream ? 

Cud-bream. 

Bullhead , or  Indian  muscle. 
River-bulls. 

Bur-fish. 

Burret. 

Cackarel,  or  laxe. 

Calemarie,  or  sea-clerk. 

Catfish .8 
Carp. 

Chare,  a fish  proper  to  the  river 
Wimander  in  Lancashire. 
Sea-chough. 

Chub,  or  chevin. 

Cony-fish. 

Clam , or  clamp.9 
Sea-cob. 


alose,  also  in  use  among  London  fishmongers  to  designate  shad  from  certain  waters. — 
Rees's  Cyc.,  in  loco.  The  old  Latin  word  alosa , supposed  to  have  been  always  applied  to 
the  fish  just  mentioned,  is  adopted  by  Cuvier  for  the  genus  which  includes  our  shad, 
alewife,  and  menhaden. 

2 The  tunny  is  so  called  on  the  coast  of  New  England.  — Stover's  Report  on  the  Fishes 
of  Mass.,  p.  48. 

3 It  is,  notwithstanding,  set  down  in  the  author’s  list  of  fishes  “ that  are  to  be  seen 
and  catch’d  in  the  sea  and  fresh  waters  in  New  England.”  — Voyages,  p.  113.  And 
compare  Storer,  Synops.  (Mem.  Am.  Acad.,  N.  S.,  vol.  ii. ),  p.  300. 

4 See  Voyages,  p.  108.  The  first  settlers  esteemed  the  bass  above  most  other  fish. 
See  Higginson’s  New-England’s  Plantation  (Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  i.  p.  120).  Wood  calls  it 
(New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap,  ix.)  “one  of  the  best  fish  in  the  country;  and  though  men 
are  soon  wearied  with  other  fish,  yet  are  they  never  with  bass.  The  Indians,”  he  says, 
eat  lobsters,  “when  they  can  get  no  bass.”  The  head  was  especially  prized;  as  see 
Wood,  and  also  Roger  Williams’s  Key  (Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  iii.  p.  224).  The  fish  is  our 
striped  bass  (Labrax  lineatus,  Cuv. ; Storer’s  Report  on  Fishes  of  Mass.,  p.  7).  Our 
author,  at  p.  37,  again  mentions  it  as  one  of  the  eight  fishes  which  “ the  Indians  have 
in  greatest  request.” 

8 See  p.  96  as  to  the  blue-fish,  or  horse-mackerel;  and  Storer,  l.  c.,  p.  57. 

6 The  bonito  of  our  fishermen  is  the  skipjack.  — Storer,  l.  c.,  p.  49. 

1 See  p.  95. 

8 See  p.  96.  Josselyn’s  character  of  the  fish  as  food  is  confirmed  by  Dr.  Storer,  l.  c., 
p.  69. 

9 The  clam  is  one  of  the  eight  fishes  mentioned  at  p.  37  as  most  prized  by  the 
Indians.  “ Sickishuog  (clams).  This  is  a sweet  kind  of  shell-fish,  which  all  Indians  gene- 
rally over  the  country,  winter  and  summer,  delight  in;  and,  at  low  water,  the  women 
dig  for  them.  This  fish,  and  the  natural  liquor  of  it,  they  boil;  and  it  makes  their 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


159 


CocJces  or  coccles,  or  coquil.* 1 
Cook-fish. 

Rock-cod. 

Sea-cod,  or  sea-whiting.2 
[25]  Crab,  divers  kinds ; as,  the 
sea-crab,  boat-fish,  river-crab, 
sea-lion,  &c. 

Sea-cucumber. 

Cunger,  or  sea-eel. 

Cunner,  or  sea-roach. 

Cur. 

Currier,  post,  or  lacquey  of  the 
sea. 

Cramp-fish,  or  torpedo. 

Cuttle,  or  sleeves,  or  sea-angler. 
Clupea,  the  tunnie’s  enemy. 
Sea-cornet. 

Cornuta,  or  horned  fish. 


Dace,  dare  or  dart. 

Sea-dart , javelins. 

Dogfish,  or  tubarone. 

Dolphin. 

Dorce. 

Dorrie  (goldfish). 

Golden-eye,  gilt-pole  or  godline, 
yellow-heads. 

Sea-dragon,  or  sea-spider,  quavi- 
ner. 

Drum,  a fish  frequent  in  the  West 
Indies. 

Sea-emperour,  or  sword-fish. 

Eel,  of  which  divers  kinds.3 

Sea-elephant.  The  leather  of  this 
fish  will  never  rot ; excellent 
for  thongs. 

Ears  of  the  sea. 


broth  and  their  nasaump  (which  is  a kind  of  thickened  broth)  and  their  bread  seasona- 
ble and  savoury,  instead  of  salt.”  — Williams's  Key,  <f'C.,  1.  c.,  p.  224.  “ These  fishes 
be  in  great  plenty  in  most  parts  of  the  country : which  is  a great  commodity  for  the 
feeding  of  swine,  both  in  winter  and  summer;  for,  being  once  used  to  those  places, 
they  will  repair  to  them  as  duly,  every  ebb,  as  if  they  were  driven  to  them  by  keepers.” 

— Wood,  N.  Eng.  Prospect,  l.  c.  The  mollusk  thus  approved  is  the  common  clam  (Mya 
arenaria,  L.);  but  the  poquauhock,  or  quahog  (Venus  mercenaria,  L.),  “which  the  In- 
dians wade  deep  and  dive  for”  (R.  Williams,  l.  c.,  p.  224),  was  also  eaten  by  them,  and 
the  black  part  of  the  shell  used  for  making  their  suckauhock,  or  black  money.  Wood 
speaks  also  of  “ clams  as  big  as  a penny  white  loaf,  which  are  great  dainties  amongst 
the  natives”  (N.  E.  Prospect,  l.  c.);  doubtless  the  giant  clam  ( Mactra  solidissima, 
Chemn.)  of  Gould  (Report  on  Invertebr.  of  Mass.,  p.  51),  which  is  still  esteemed  as 
food. 

1 See  p.  36 ; by  which  it  appears  that  the  author  has  in  view  the  meteauhock  of  the 
Indians;  “the  periwinkle,  of  which  they  make  their  wompam,  or  white  money,  of  half 
the  value  of  their  suckauhock,  or  black  money”  (R.  Williams,  l.  c.):  supposed  to  be 
Buccinum  undatum,  L.  (Gould,  l.  c.,  p.  305);  and  possibly,  also,  one  or  two  other  allied 
shell-fish. 

2 “ Cod-fish  in  these  seas”  (that  is,  Massachusetts  Bay)  “are  larger  than  in  New- 
foundland,— six  or  seven  making  a quintal;  whereas  they  have  fifteen  to  the  same 
weight.”  — New-Eng.  Prospect,  l.  c.  Compare  Storer,  l.  c.,  p.  121.  Josselyn  has  an 
entertaining  account  of  the  sea-fishery,  in  his  Voyages,  pp.  210-13. 

3 See  further  of  eels,  and  the  author’s  several  ways  of  cooking  them,  in  his  Voy- 
ages, p.  111.  At  p.  37  of  the  Rarities,  eels  are  mentioned  among  the  fishes  most  prized 
by  the  Indians.  “ These  eels  be  not  of  so  luscious  a taste  as  they  be  in  England,  neither 
are  they  so  aguish;  but  are  both  wholesome  for  the  body,  and  delightful  for  the  taste.” 

— Wood,  New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap.  ix. 


1G0 


ARCH2EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Flayl-fish. 

[26]  Flownder,  or  flook  : the 
young  ones  are  called  dabs. 
Sea-flownder,  or  flowre. 

Sea-fox. 

Frog-fish. 

Frost-fish^ 

Frutola,  a broad,  plain  fish,  with 
a tail  like  a half-moon. 

Sea-fiea. 

Gally-fish. 

Grandpiss,4 5  or  herring-hog.  This, 
as  all  fish  of  extraordinary  size, 
are  accounted  regal  fishes. 
Grayling. 

Greedigut. 

Groundling. 

Gudgin. 

Gulf. 

Sea-grape. 

Gull. 

Gurnard. 

Hake. 

Haccle,  or  sticklebacks. 

Haddock. 

Horse-foot,  or  asses’-hoof. 

Herring. 


Hallihut,  or  sea-pheasant.  Some 
will  have  the  turbut  all  one: 
others  distinguish  [27]  them; 
calling  the  young  fish  of  the 
first,  buttis  ; and,  of  the  other, 
birt.  There  is  no  question  to 
be  made  of  it  but  that  they  are 
distinct  kinds  of  fish.6 

Sea-hare .7 

Sea-hawk. 

Hart-fish. 

Sea-hermit. 

Hen-fish. 

Sea-hind. 

Hornbeak,  sea-ruff,  and  reeves. 

Sea-horseman. 

Hog  or  flying  fish. 

Sea-kite,  or  flying  swallow. 

Lampret,  or  lamprel. 

Lampreys,  or  lamprones.8 

Limpin. 

Ling  (sea-beef) : the  smaller  sort 
is  called  cusk. 

Sea-lantliorn. 

Sea-liver. 

Lobster .9 

Sea-lizard. 


4 See  p.  37,  where  it  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  fishes  which  “ the  Indians  have  in 
greatest  request.”  — “ Poponaumsuog  ” of  R.  Williams,  l.  c.,  p.  225.  He  says,  “Some 
call  them  frost-fish,  from  their  coming  up  from  the  sea  into  fresh  brooks  in  times  of 

frost  and  snow.” 

6 “Grampoise;  Fr . grandpoisson corrupted  grampus.  — Webster,  Diet. 

6 “ These  hollibut  be  little  set  by  while  bass  is  in  season.”  — Wood,  I.  c.,  chap.  ix. 

1 “ The  sea-hare  is  as  big  as  grampus,  or  berrin-hog;  and  as  white  as  a sheet.  There 
hath  been  of  them  in  Black-Point  Harbour,  and  some  way  up  the  river;  but  we  could 
never  take  any  of  them.  Several  have  shot  sluggs  at  them,  but  lost  their  labour.”  — 
Voyages,  p.  105.  The  Lepus  marinus  of  the  old  writers  is  a naked  mollusk  of  the  Me- 
diterranean ; Laplysia  depilans,  L. : but  Josselyn’s  was  a very  different  animal. 

8 One  of  the  fishes  most  valued  by  the  Indians  (p.  37);  but  “ not  much  set  by”  by 
the  English,  according  to  Wood,  l.  c. 

9 “I  have  seene  some  myselfe  that  have  weighed  16  pound;  but  others  have  had, 
divers  times,  so  great  lobsters  as  have  weighed  25  pound,  as  they  assure  me.”  — Big- 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


161 


Sea-locusts. 

Lump,  poddle,  or  sea-owl. 

Lanter. 

Lux,  peculiar  to  the  river  Rhyne. 

Sea-lights. 

[28]  Luna,  a very  small  fish,  but 
exceeding  beautiful ; broad-bo- 
died, and  blewish  of  colour. 
When  it  swims,  the  fins  make 
a circle  like  the  moon. 

Maycril. 

Maid. 

Manatee. 

Mola,  a fish  like  a lump  of  flesh, 
taken  in  the  Venetian  Sea. 

Miller’s-thumb,  mulcet  or  pollard. 

Molefish. 

Minnow,  called  likewise  a pink. 
The  same  name  is  given  to 
young  salmon.  It  is  called 
also  a witlin. 


Monke-fish} 

Morse , river  or  sea  horse.2 
Fresh-water  mullet. 

Sea-mullet.  Botargo,  or  petargo, 
is  made  of  their  spawn. 

Muscle,  divers  kinds.3 
Navel-fish. 

Nunjish. 

Needlefish. 

Sea-nettie. 

Oyster .* i 
Occulata. 

Perch,  or  river-partridge. 

Pollack. 

[29]  Piper,  or  gave-fish. 

Periwig. 

Perriwincle,  or  sea  - snail,  or 
whelk. 

Pike,  or  fresh- water  wolf,  or  river- 
wolf  (luce  and  lucerne),  which 
is  an  overgrown  pike. 


ginson's  New-Eng.  Plantation,  l.c.,  p.  120;  with  which  compare  Gould’s  Report,  &c., 
p.  360.  “ Their  plenty  makes  them  little  esteemed,  and  seldom  eaten.”  — Wood,  New- 

Eng.  Prospect,  chap.  ix.  At  p.  37,  Josselyn  counts  them  among  the  fishes,  &c.,  most 
esteemed  by  the  Indians;  but  Wood  (l.c.)  qualifies  this  in  a passage  already  cited. 
The  Indians,  it  seems,  sometimes  dried  them,  “as  they  do  lampres  and  oysters;  which 
are  delicate  breakfast-meat  so  ordered.” — Josselyti's  Voyages,  p.  110.  See  the  Indian 
way  of  catching  lobsters,  in  Voyages,  p.  140. 

1 “ Munk-fish,  a flat-fish  like  scate;  having  a hood  like  a fryer’s  cowl”  (p.  96). 
Lophius  Americanus,  Cuv.,  the  sea-devil  of  Storer  (Synops.  of  Amer.  Fishes,  in  Mem. 
Amer.  Acad.,  N.  S.,  vol.  ii.  p.  381),  is  called  monk-fish  in  Maine.  ^ Williamson,  Hist., 
vol.  i.  p.  157. 

2 See  p.  97. 

8 “ The  muscle  is  of  two  sorts,  — sea-muscles  (in  which  they  find  pearl)  and  river- 
muscles.”  — Voyages,  p.  110.  See  p.  37,  of  the  present  volume,  for  an  account  of  “ the 
scarlet  muscle,”  which  . . . yieldeth  a perfect  purple  or  scarlet  juice;  dying  linnen 
so  that  no  washing  will  wear  it  out,”  &c.  This  could  scarcely  have  been  a purpura  or 
buccinum. 

* See  Voyages,  p.  110.  “The  oysters  be  great  ones,”  says  Wood;  “in  form  of  a 
shoe-horn:  some  be  a foot  long.  These  breed  on  certain  banks  that  are  bare  every 
spring-tide.”  — New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap.  ix.  This  was  in  the  waters  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  where  Higginson  (New-Eng.  Plantation,  l.  c.,  p.  120)  also  speaks  of  their  being 
found.  The  question  whether  the  oyster  is  an  indigenous  inhabitant  of  our  bay,  or 
only  an  introduced  stranger,  is  considered  by  Dr.  Gould  (Report  on  Invert.  Animals  of 
Mass.,  pp.  135,  365). 


21 


162 


ARCHfEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Pilchard.  When  they  are  dried, 
as  red  herrings,  they  are  called 
fumadoes. 

Pilot-fish. 

Plaice , or  sea-sparrow. 

Polipe,  or  pour-contrel. 

Porpuise,  or  porpiss,  molebut,  sea- 
hog,  Sus  marinus,  tursion. 

Priest-fish,  or  sea-priest. 

Prawn,  or  crangone. 

Punger. 

Patella. 

Powt  (the  feathered  fish),  or  fork- 
fish. 

River-powt. 

Purse-fish,  or  Indian  reversus,  like 
an  eel ; having  a skin  on  the 
hinder  part  of  her  head  like  a 
purse  with  strings,  which  will 
open  and  shut. 

Parrat-fish. 

Purple-fish. 

Porgee. 

Remora,  or  suck-stone,  or  stop- 
ship. 

Sea-raven. 


[30]  Roch,  or  roach. 

Rochet,  or  rouget. 

Ruff,  or  pope. 

Sea-ram. 

Salmon ? 

Sail-fish. 

Scallope,  or  Venus-coccle. 

Scate,  or  ray,  or  gristle-fish,  of 
which  divers  kinds ; as  sharp- 
snowted  ray,  rock-ray,  See. 

Shad.6 

Shallow. 

Sharpling. 

Spurling. 

Sculpin. 

Sheep’s-head.7 

Soles,  or  tongue-fish,  or  sea-capon, 
or  sea-partridge. 

Seal,  or  soil,  or  zeal.8 9 

Sea-calf,  and  (as  some  will  have 
it)  molebut. 

Sheath  fish? 

Sea-scales. 

Sturgeon.  Of  the  roe  of  this  fish 
they  make  caviare,  or  cavial- 
tie.1 


6  One  of  the  fishes  “in  greatest  request”  among  the  Indians  (p.  37).  Wood  says  it 
“is  as  good  as  it  is  in  England,  and  in  great  plenty  in  some  places.”  — New-Eng.  Pro- 
spect, chap.  ix. 

6 “ The  shads  be  bigger  than  the  English  shads,  and  fatter.”  — Wood,  l.  c. 

7 “ Taul-auog  (sheep’s-heads).”  So  Roger  Williams’s  Key,  l.  c.,  p.  224.  It  is  pro- 
bable, therefore,  that  our  author  had  the  fish  that  we  call  tautog  in  his  mind  here. 
What  is  now  called  sheep’s-head  is  not  known  in  Massachusetts  Bay  and  northward.  — 
Storer,  l.  c.,  p.  36. 

8 See  p.  34;  and  Wood,  l.  c.,  chap.  ix. 

9 See  p.  96.  It  appears  to  be  the  mollusk,  the  shell  of  which  is  well  known  as  the 
razor-shell  ( Solen  ensis,  L.). — Gould,  Report,  p.  28. 

1 See  p.  32.  “The  sturgeons  be  all  over  the  country;  but  the  best  catching  of 
them  is  upon  the  shoals  of  Cape  Cod  and  in  the  river  of  Merrimack,  where  much  is, 
taken,  pickled,  and  brought  to  England.  Some  of  these  be  12, 14,  and  18  feet  long.”  — 
Wood,  New- Eng.  Prospect,  chap.  ix.  R.  Williams  says  that  “the  natives,  for  the 
goodness  and  greatness  of  it,  much  prize  it;  and  will  neither  furnish  the  English  with 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


163 


Shark,  or  bunch ; several  kinds.* 2 
Smelt. 

Snaccot. 

[31]  Shrimp. 

Spy-fish. 

Spite-fish. 

Sprat. 

Spunge-fish. 

Squill. 

Squid.3 4 

Sun-fish. 

Star-fish? 

Sword-fish. 

Tench. 

Thornback,  or  Neptune’s  beard. 
Thunnie.  They  cut  the  fish  in 
pieces  like  shingles,  and  powder 
it ; and  this  they  call  melan- 
dria. 

Sea-toad. 


Tortoise,  torteise,  tortuga,  tortisse, 
turcle,  or  turtle , of  divers 
kinds.5 6 7 

Trout? 

Turbut? 

Sea-tun. 

Sea-tree. 

Uraniscopus. 

Ulatife,  or  sawfsh  ; having  a saw 
in  his  forehead  three  foot  long, 
and  very  sharp. 

Umber. 

Sea-urchin.  [ros. 

[32]  Sea-unicorn,  or  sea-monoce- 

Whale,  many  kinds.8 9 

Whiting,  or  merling.  The  young 
ones  are  called  weerlings  and 
mops. 

Whore? 

Yard-fish,  or  shame-fish. 


so  many,  nor  so  cheap,  that  any  great  trade  is  like  to  be  made  of  it,  until  the  English 
themselves  are  fit  to  follow  the  fishing.”  — Key,  l.  c.,  p.  224.  It  is  one  of  Josselyn’s 
eight  fish  which  are  in  “ greatest  request”  with  the  Indians  (p.  37).  . He  calls  “ Pechips- 
cut”  River,  in  Maine,  “famous  for  multitudes  of  mighty  large  sturgeon.”  — Voyages, 
p.  204. 

2 See  Voyages,  pp.  105-6. 

3 “ This  fish  is  much  used  for  bait  to  catch  a cod,  hacke,  polluck,  and  the  like  sea- 
fish.”  — Voyages,  p.  107.  It  is  still  so  used. 

4 Described  at  p.  95. 

6  See  p.  34  of  this,  and  p.  109  of  the  Voyages,  where  the  author  says,  “ Of  sea- 
turtles,  there  are  five  sorts ; of  land-turtles,  three  sorts,  — one  of  which  is  a right  land- 
turtle,  that  seldom  or  never  goes  into  the  water ; the  other  two  being  the  river-turtle 
and  the  pond-turtle.”  — See  also  the  author’s  observations  on  sea-turtles,  at  p.  39  of  the 
Voyages. 

6 “Trouts  there  be  good  store  in  every  brook;  ordinarily  two  and  twenty  inches 
long.  Their  grease  is  good  for  the  piles  and  clifts.”  — Voyages,  p.  110. 

7 See  Storer’s  Report,  p.  146. 

8 See  p.  35;  and  Voyages,  p.  104.  “The  natives  cut  them  in  several  parcel,  and 
give  and  send  them  far  and  near  for  an  acceptable  present  or  dish.”  — R.  Williams, 
Key,  l.  c.,  p.  224. 

9 See  Voyages,  p.  110.  This  is  the  common  sea-egg;  Echinus  granulaius,  Say. — 
Gould's  Rep.,  p.  344. 


164 


ARCH/EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


The  Sturgeon. 

The  sturgeon;  of  whose  sounds  is  made  isinglass,  — a kind 
of  glew  much  used  in  physick.  This  fish  is  here  in  great 
plenty,  and  in  some  rivers  so  numerous  that  it  is  hazardous 
for  canoes  and  the  like  small  vessels  to  pass  to  and  again ; as 
in  Pechipscut  River  to  the  eastward. 

The  Cod. 

The  cod,  which  is  a staple  commodity  in  the  country. 

To  stop  Fluxes  of  Blood. 

In  the  head  of  this  fish  is  found  a stone,  or  rather  a 
bone,  which,  being  pulveriz’d  and  drank  in  any  convenient 
liquor,  will  stop  women’s  overflowing  courses  notably.  Like- 
wise,— ■ 

[33]  For  the  Stone. 

There  is  a stone  found  in  their  bellies,  in  a bladder  against 
their  navel ; which,  being  pulveriz’d  and  drank  in  white-wine 
posset,  or  ale,  is  present  remedy  for  the  stone. 

To  heal  a Green  Cut. 

About  their  fins  you  may  find  a kind  of  lowse,  which  heal- 
eth  a green  cut  in  short  time. 

To  restore  them  that  have  melted  their  Grease. 

Their  livers  and  sounds,  eaten,  is  a good  medicine  for  to 
restore  them  that  have  melted  their  grease. 

The  Bog-fish. 

The  dog-fish,  a ravenous  fish. 

For  the  Toothach. 

Upon  whose  back  grows  a thorn,  two  or  three  inches  long, 
that  helps  the  toothach  ; scarifying  the  gums  therewith. 

Their  skins  are  good  to  cover  boxes  and  instrument-cases. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


165 


[34]  The  Stingray. 

The  stingray,  a large  fish,  of  a rough  skin;  good  to  cover 
boxes,  and  hafts  of  knives  and  rapier-sticks. 

The  Tortous. 

The  turtle,  or  tortous,  of  which  there  are  three  kinds. 

1.  The  land-turtle:  they  are  found  in  dry,  sandy  banks,  under 
old  houses ; and  never  go  into  the  water. 

For  the  Ptisiek,  Consumption,  and  Morbus  Gallicus. 

They  are  good  for  the  ptisiek  and  consumptions,  and,  some 
say,  the  morbus  gallicus. 

2.  The  river-turtle,  which  are  venomous,  and  stink. 

3.  The  turtle,  that  lives  in  lakes,  and  is  called  in  Virginia 
a terrapine. 

The  Soile. 

The  soile,  or  sea-calf,  a creature  that  brings  forth  her  young 
ones  upon  dry  land ; but,  at  other  times,  keeps  in  the  sea, 
preying  upon  fish. 

[35]  For  Scalds  and  Burns,  and  for  the  Mother. 

The  oyl  of  it  is  much  used  by  the  Indians,  who  eat  of  it 
with  their  fish,  and  anoint  their  limbs  therewith,  and  their 
wounds  and  sores.  It  is  very  good  for  scalds  and  burns ; and 
the  fume  of  it,  being  cast  upon  coals,  will  bring  women  out 
of  the  mother-fits.  The  hair  upon  the  young  ones  is  white, 
and  as  soft  as  silk.  Their  skins,  with  the  hair  on,  are  good 
to  make  gloves  for  the  winter. 

The  Sperma-ceti  Whale. 

The  sperma-ceti  whale  differeth  from  the  whales  that  yield 
us  whale-bones : for  the  first  hath  great  and  long  teeth  ; the 
other  is  nothing  but  bones,  with  tassels  hanging  from  their 
jaws,  with  which  they  suck  in  their  prey. 


166 


ARCH/EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


What  Sperma-ceti  is. 

It  is  not  long  since  a sperma-ceti  wliale  or  two  were  cast 
upon  the  shore,  not  far  from  Boston,  in  the  Massachusetts 
Bay ; which,  being  cut  into  small  pieces  and  boiled  in  caul- 
drons, yielded  plenty  of  oyl.  The  oyl,  put  up  into  hogsheads 
and  stow’d  into  cellars  for  some  time,  candies  at  the  [36]  bot- 
tom,— it  may  be  one-quarter:  then  the  oyl  is  drawn  off;  and 
the  candied  stuff,  put  up  into  convenient  vessels,  is  sold  for 
sperma-ceti,  and  is  right  sperma-ceti. 

For  Bruises  and  Aches. 

The  oyl  that  was  drawn  off  candies  again  and  again,  if  well 
ordered ; and  is  admirable  for  bruises  and  aches. 

Wliat  Ambergreece  is. 

Now,  you  must  understand  this  whale  feeds  upon  amber- 
greece ; as  is  apparent,  finding  it  in  the  Avhale’s  maw  in  great 
quantity,  but  altered  and  excrementitious.  I conceive  that 
ambergreece  is  no  other  than  a kind  of  mushroom,  growing 
at  the  bottom  of  some  seas.  I was  once  shewed,  by  a ma- 
riner, a piece  of  ambergreece,  having  a root  to  it  like  that  of 
the  land  mushroom  ; which  the  whale  breaking  up,  some  scape 
his  devouring  paunch,  and  is  afterwards  cast  upon  shore. 

The  Cocele.1 

A kind  of  coccle,  of  whose  shell  the  Indians  make  their 
beads  called  wompampeag  and  mohaicks.  The  first  are 
white;  the  other,  blew:  both  orient,  and  beau[37]tified  with 
a purple  vein.  The  white  beads  are  very  good  to  stanch 
blood. 


1 See  p.  24  and  note. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


1G7 


The  Scarlet  Muscle. 

The  scarlet  muscle.  At  Paschataway  (a  plantation  about 
fifty  leagues  by  sea  eastward  from  Boston),  in  a small  cove 
called  Baker’s  Cove,  there  is  found  this  kind  of  muscle,  which 
hath  a purple  vein ; which,  being  prickt  with  a needle,  yield- 
eth  a perfect  purple  or  scarlet  juice  ; dying  linnen  so  that  no 
washing  will  wear  it  out,  but  keeps  its  lustre  many  years. 
We  mark  our  handkerchiefs  and  shirts  with  it.2 

Fish  of  greatest  Esteem  in  the  West  Indies. 

The  Indians  of  Peru  esteem  of  three  fishes  more  than  any 
other ; viz.,  the  sea-torteise,  the  tubaron,  and  the  manate,3  or 
sea-cow : but,  in  New  England,  the  Indians  have  in  greatest 
request  the  bass,  the  sturgeon,  the  salmon,  the  lamprey,  the 
eel,  the  frost-fish,  the  lobster,  and  the  clam. 


2 Our  author’s  account  of  the  fishes  of  New  England  may  take  this  of  old  Wood 
(N.  E.  Prospect,  l.  c.)  for  a tail-piece.  “ The  chief  fish  for  trade,”  says  he,  “is  a cod; 
but,  for  the  use  of  the  country,  there  is  all  manner  of  fish,  as  followeth:  — 


“ The  king  of  waters,  — the  sea-shouldering  Whale ; 
The  snuffing  Grampus,  with  the  oily  seal ; 

The  storm-presaging  Porpus,  Herring-hog; 
Line-shearing  Shark,  the  Cat-fish,  and  Sea-dog; 

The  scale-fenced  Sturgeon;  wry-mouthed  Hollibut; 
The  flouncing  Salmon,  Codfish,  Greedigut; 

Cole,  Haddick,  Hake,  the  Thornback,  and  the  Scate, 
(Whose  slimy  outside  makes  him  seld'  in  date;) 

The  stately  Bass,  old  Neptune’s  fleeting  post, 

That  tides  it  out  and  in  from  sea  to  coast; 

Consorting  Herrings,  and  the  bony  Shad; 

Big-bellied  Ale  wives;  Mackrels  richly  clad 
With  rainbow-colour,  the  Frost-fish  and  the  Smelt, 
As  good  as  ever  Lady  Gustus  felt; 

The  spotted  Lamprons;  Eels;  the  Lamperies, 

That  seek  fresh-water  brooks  with  Argus-eyes : 
These  watery  villagers,  with  thousands  more, 

Do  pass  and  repass  near  the  verdant  shore.” 


8 See  p.  97. 


168 


ARCHJGOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


[38]  FOURTHLY,  OF  SERPENTS  AND  INSECTS.4 * 6 


The  Pond-Frog? 

The  pond-frog,  which  chirp  in  the  spring  like  sparows,  and 
croke  like  toads  in  autumn.  Some  of  these,  when  they  set 
upon  their  breech,  are  a foot  high.  The  Indians  will  tell  you, 
that,  up  in  the  country,  there  are  pond-frogs  as  big  as  a child 
of  a year  old. 

For  Burns , Scalds,  and  Inflammations. 

They  are  of  a glistering  brass  colour,  and  very  fat ; which 
is  excellent  for  burns  and  scaldings,  to  take  out  the  fire  and 
heal  them,  leaving  no  scar ; and  is  also  very  good  to  take 
away  any  inflammation. 

The  Battle- Snake? 

The  rattle-snake,  who  poysons  with  a vapour  that  comes 
thorough  two  crooked  fangs  in  their  mouth.  The  hollow  of 
these  fangs  are  as  black  as  ink.  The  Indians,  when  weary 


4 The  account  in  the  Voyages  (pp.  114-23)  is  better;  and  Wood’s,  in  New-England’s 

Prospect,  chap.  xi.  (to  which  last,  Josselyn  was  possibly  indebted),  far  better. 

6 See  “ the  generating  of  these  creatures,”  in  Voyages,  p.  119.  “ Here,  likewise,” 
says  Wood,  “be  great  store  of  frogs,  which,  in  the  spring,  do  chirp  and  whistle  like  a 
bird;  and,  at  the  latter  end  of  summer,  croak  like  our  English  frogs.”  — N.  Eng.  Pro- 
specl , l.c.  In  his  Voyages,  Josselyn  speaks  (as  Wood  had  done)  of  the  tree-toad,  and 
also  of  another  kind  of  toad;  and  of  “the  eft,  or  swift,  ...  a most  beautiful  creature 
to  look  upon;  being  larger  than  ours,  and  painted  with  glorious  colours:  but  I lik’d 
him  never  the  better  for  it”  (p.  119). 

6 Wood’s  account  (New-Eng.  Prospect,  l.c.)  is  worth  comparing  with  Higginson’s 
(New-England’s  Plantation,  l.  c.)  and  with  Josselyn’s,  both  here  and  at  pp.  23  and  114 
of  the  Voyages.  Wood  justly  says  of  this  “most  poisonous  and  dangerods  creature,” 
that  it  is  “nothing  so  bad  as  the  report  goes  of  him.  ...  He  is  naturally,”  he  con- 
tinues, “the  most  sleepy  and  unnimble  creature  that  lives;  never  offering  to  leap  or 
bite  any  man,  if  he  be  not  trodden  on  first:  and  it  is  their  desire,  in  hot  weather,  to  lie 
in  paths  where  the  sun  may  shine  on  them;  where  they  will  sleep  so  soundly,  that  I 
have  known  four  men  stride  over  them,  and  never  awake  her.  . . . Five  or  six  men,” 
he  adds,  “have  been  bitten  by  them;  which,  by  using  of  snake-weed”  (compare  the 
preface  to  this,  p.  119),  “ were  all  cured;  never  any  yet  losing  his  life  by  them.  Cows 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered.  169 

with  travelling,  will  [39]  take  them  up  with  their  hare  hands  ; 
laying  hold  with  one  hand  behind  their  head,  with  the  other 
taking  hold  of  their  tail ; and,  with  their  teeth,  tear  off  the 
skin  of  their  backs,  and  feed  upon  them  alive ; which,  they 
say,  refresheth  them. 

For  Frozen  Limbs , Aches , and  Bruises. 

They  have  leafs  of  fat  in  their  bellies ; which  is  excellent 
to  annoint  frozen  limbs,  and,  for  aches  and  bruises,  wondrous 
soveraign.  Their  hearts,  swallowed  fresh,  is  a good  antidote 
against  their  venome ; and  their  liver  (the  gall  taken  out), 
bruised  and  applied  to  their  bitings,  is  a present  remedy. 


have  been  bitten ; but,  being  out  in  divers  places,  and  this  weed  thrust  into  their  flesh, 
were  cured.  I never  heard  of  any  beast  that  was  yet  lost  by  any  of  them,  saving  one 
mare”  ( l . c.).  Of  other  serpents,  Wood  mentions  the  black  snake;  and  Josselyn,in  his 
Voyages  (l.  c.),  speaks  of  “infinite  numbers,  of  various  colours;”  and  especially  of 
“ one  sort  that  exceeds  all  the  rest;  and  that  is  the  checkquered  snake,  having  as  many 
colours  within  the  checkquers  shadowing  one  another  as  there  are  in  a rainbow.” 
He  says  again,  “ The  water-snake  will  be  as  big  about  the  belly  as  the  calf  of  a man’s 
leg;”  which  is,  perhaps,  the  water-adder.  Josselyn  adds,  “I  never  heard  of  any  mis- 
chief that  snakes  did  " (l.  c.) ; and  so  Wood:  “ Neither  doth  any  other  kind  of  snakes” 
(the  rattle-snake  always  excepted,  as  no  doubt  dangerous  when  trodden  on)  “molest 
either  man  or  beast.”  There  are  perhaps  no  worse  prejudices,  in  common  life,  than 
those  which  breed  cruelty.  In  the  Voyages  (p.  23),  our  author  makes  mention  “of  a 
sea-serpent,  or  snake,  that  lay  quoiled  up  like  a cable  upon  a rock  at  Cape  Ann.  A 
boat  passing  by  with  English  aboard,  and  two  Indians,  they  would  have  shot  the  ser- 
pent: but  the  Indians  disswaded  them;  saying,  that,  if  he  were  not  kill’d  outright,  they 
would  be  all  in  danger  of  their  lives.”  This  was  from  “ some  neighbouring  gentlemen 
in  our  house,  who  came  to  welcome  me  into  the  countrey;”  and  it  seems,  that, 
“ amongst  variety  of  discourse,  they  told  me  also  of  a young  lyon  (not  long  before) 
killed  at  Piscataway  by  an  Indian;”  which,  indeed,  was  possibly  not  without  founda- 
tion. And  as  to  the  serpent,  compare  a Report  of  a Committee  of  the  Linnsean  Society 
of  New  England  relative  to  a large  marine  animal,  supposed  to  be  a serpent,  seen  near 
Cape  Ann,  Mass.,  in  August,  1817  (Boston,  1817);  which  contains  also  a full  account 
of  a smaller  animal  — supposed  not  to  differ,  even  in  species,  from  the  large  — which 
was  taken  on  the  rocks  of  Cape  Ann.  — See  also  Storer,  Report  on  the  Reptiles  of 
Mass.;  Supplement,  p.  410. 


22 


170 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


OF  INSECTS.7 


A Bug. 

There  is  a certain  kind  of  bug  like  a beetle,  but  of  a glis- 
tering brass  colour,  with  four  strong,  tinsel  wings.  Their 
bodies  are  full  of  corruption,  or  white  matter  like  a maggot. 
Being  dead,  and  kept  awhile,  they  will  stench  odiously. 
They  beat  the  humming-birds  from  the  flowers. 

[40]  The  Wasp. 

The  wasps  in  this  countrey  are  pied ; black  and  white  ; 
breed  in  hives  made  like  a great  pine-apple.  Their  entrance 
is  at  the  lower  end.  The  whole  hive  is  of  an  ash  colour ; but 
of  what  matter  it’s  made,  no  man  knows.  Wax  it  is  not: 
neither  will  it  melt  nor  fry ; but  will  take  fire  suddenly,  like 
tinder.  This  they  fasten  to  a bow,  or  build  it  round  about  a 
low  bush,  a foot  from  the  ground. 

The  Flying  Gloworm. 

The  flying  gloworm ; flying,  in  dark  summer  nights,  like 
sparks  of  fire  in  great  number.  They  are  common,  liewise, 
in  Palestina. 


7 The  author  continues  his  entomological  observations,  in  his  Voyages,  p.  115;  and 
the  account  is  fuller  than  Wood’s;  New-England’s  Prospect , chap.  xi. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


171 


[41]  FIFTHLY,  OF  PLANTS. 

And,  1.  Of  such  Plants  as  are  Common  with  us  in  England. 

Hedgehog  grass.8 

Mattweed.9 

Cat’s-tail.1 

Stichwort,  commonly  taken  here,  by  ignorant  people,  for 
eye-bright.  It  blows  in  June.2 

Blew  Flower-de-luce.  The  roots  are  not  knobby,  but  long 
and  streight,  and  very  white ; with  a multitude  of  strings.3 

To  provoke  Vomit,  and  for  Bruises. 

It  is  excellent  for  to  provoke  vomiting,  and  for  bruises  on 
the  feet  or  face.  They  flower  in  June,  and  grow  upon  dry, 
sandy  hills,  as  well  as  in  low,  wet  grounds. 


8 Gerard  by  Johnson,  p.  17, — Carex  flava,  L.;  the  first  species  of  this  genus 
indicated  in  North  America,  and  common  also  to  Europe.  There  is  no  doubt  of  the 
reference,  taking  Josselyn’s  name  to  be  meant  for  specific,  and  to  refer  to  Gerard’s  first 
figure  with  the  same  name.  But  it  is  certainly  possible  that  our  author  had  in  view 
only  a general  reference  to  Gerard’s  fourteenth  chapter,  “ Of  Hedgehog  Grasse,”  which 
brings  together  plants  of  very  different  genera;  and,  in  this  case,  his  name  is  of  little 
account.  Cutler  (Account  of  Indig.  Veg.,  1.  c.,  1785)  mentions  three  genera  of  Cypera- 
cece , but  not  Carex;  nor  did  he  ever  publish  that  description  of  our  true  Graminece 
“ and  other  native  grasses,”  which,  he  says  (l.  c.,  p.  407),  “may  be  the  subject  of  another 
paper.”  The  first  edition  of  Bigelow’s  Florula  Bostoniensis  (1814)  has  seven  species 
of  Carex , which  are  increased  to  seventeen  in  the  second  edition  (1824);  the  list  em- 
bracing the  most  common  and  conspicuous  forms.  The  genus  has  since  been  made 
an  object  of  special  study,  and  the  number  of  our  species,  in  consequence,  greatly 
increased.  A list  of  Carices  of  the  neighborhood  of  Boston,  published  by  the  present 
writer  in  1841  (Hovey’s  Mag.  Hort.),  gives  forty-seven  species;  and  Professor  Dewey’s 
Report  on  the  Herbaceous  Plants  of  Massachusetts,  in  1840,  reckons  ninety-one  species 
within  the  limits  of  his  work. 

9 Johnson’s  Gerard,  p.  42,  — English  matweed,  or  helme  (the  other  species  being 
excluded,  as  not  English,  by  our  author’s  caption);  which  I take  to  be  Oilamagroslis 
arenaria.  (L.)  Roth,  of  Gray,  Man.,  p.  548;  called  sea-matvveed  in  England,  and  com- 
mon to  Europe  and  America.  But  if  the  author  only  intended  to  refer  to  Gerard's 
“ Chapter  34,  of  Mat-weed,”  — which  is  perhaps,  on  the  whole,  unlikely,  — his  name 
is  of  no  value. 

1 Gerard,  p.  46, — Typha  laiifulia,  L.,  — common  to  America  and  Europe. 

2 Gerard,  p.  47, — Stellaria  graminea,  L.;  for  which  our  author  mistook,  as  did 
Cutler  a century  after,  the  nearly  akin  iS.  longifolia,  Muhl. 

8 Appears  not  to  be  meant  for  a specific  reference  to  any  of  Gerard’s  species;  but 
only  an  indication  of  the  genus,  with  the  single  distinguishing  character  of  color,  which 


172 


ARCH.EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Yellow-bastard  daffodil.  It  floweretli  in  May.  The  green 
leaves  are  spotted  with  black  spots.* * 4 

Dogstones,  a kind  of  satyrion ; whereof  there  are  several 
kinds  groweth  in  our  salt-marshes.5 

[42]  To  procure  Love. 

I once  took  notice  of  a wanton  woman’s  compounding  the 
solid  roots  of  this  plant  with  wine,  for  an  amorous  cup ; which 
wrought  the  desired  effect. 

Watercresses.6 

Red  lillies  grow  all  over  the  country  innumerably  amongst 
the  small  bushes,  and  flower  in  June.7 

Wild  sorrel.8 

Adder’s-tongue  comes  not  up  till  June.  I have  found  it 
upon  dry,  hilly  grounds,  — in  places  where  the  water  hath 
stood  all  winter,  — in  August;  and  did  then  make  oyntment 
of  the  herb  new  gathered.  The  fairest  leaves  grow  amongst 


was  enough  to  separate  the  New-England  plants  from  the  only  British  one  referred  by 

Gerard  to  Iris.  Both  of  our  blue-flags  are  peculiar  to  the  country. 

4 Not  one  of  Gerard’s  bastard  daffodils,  but  his  dog’s-tooth,  p.  204  ( Erylhronium , 

L.).  Our  common  dog’s-tooth  was  at  first  taken  for  a variety  of  the  European,  but  is 
now  reckoned  distinct. 

6  Gerard,  p.  205,  — Orchis , L.,  etc.  It  is  here  clear  that  the  name  is  used  only  in  a 
general  way.  The  second  name  (Satyrion),  perhaps,  however,  makes  our  author’s  no- 
tion a little  more  definite,  and  permits  us  to  refer  the  plants  he  had  probably  in  view 
to  species  of  Platanthera , Rich.  (Gray,  Man.,  p.  444),  of  which  only  one  is  certainly- 
known  to  be  common  to  us  and  Europe. 

6 Gerard,  em.  p.  257,  — Nasturtium  officinale,  L.  Reckoned  also  by  Cutler,  and 
indeed  naturalized  in  some  parts  of  the  country  (Gray,  Man.,  p.  30);  but  our  author 
had  probably  N.  palustre , DC.  (marsh-cress),  if  any  thing  of  this  genus,  and  not 
rather  Cardamine  liirsuta,  L.  (hairy  lady’s  smock),  in  his  mind.  Both  the  last  are 
common  to  us  and  Europe.  — Gray,  l.  c. 

7 Gerard,  p.  192.  Lilium  bulbiferum  (the  garden  red  lily)  is  meant;  for  which  our 
author  mistook  our  own  red  lily  (L.  Philadelphkum,  L. ). 

8 Of  the  two  plants,  — either  of  which  may  possibly  have  been  in  view  of  the 
author  here,  — the  sorrell  du  bois,  or  white  wood-sorrel  of  Gerard,  p.  1101  ( Oxalis 
acetosdla,  L.),  which  is  truly  common  to  Europe  and  America,  and  the  sheep’s  son-el 
(Gerard,  p.  397,  — Rumex  acetosella,  L. ),  which  inhabits,  indeed,  the  whole  northern 
hemisphere,  but  is  taken  by  Dr.  Gray  to  be  a naturalized  weed  here,  I incline  to 
think  the  latter  less  likely  to  have  escaped  Josselyn’s  attention  than  the  former,  and 
to  be  what  he  means  to  say  appeared  to  him  as  native,  in  1671.  For  the  yellow  wood- 
sorrel,  see  farther  on. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


173 


short  hawthorn-bushes,  that  are  plentifully  growing  in  such 
hollow  places.9 
One-blade.* 1 

Lilly  convallie,  with  the  yellow  flowers,  grows  upon  rocky 
banks  by  the  sea.2 

Water-plantane,  here  called  water-suck  leaves.3 

For  Burns  and  Scalds,  and  to  draw  Water  out  of  Swell' d,  Legs. 

It  is  much  used  for  burns  and  scalds,  and  to  draw  water 
out  of  swell’d  legs.  Bears  feed  much  upon  this  plant ; so  do 
the  moose-deer. 

[43]  Sea-plantane,  three  kinds.4 
Small-water  archer.5 
Autumn  bell-flower.6 

White  hellibore,  which  is  the  first  plant  that  springs  up  in 
this  country,  and  the  first  that  withers.  It  grows  in  deep, 
black  mould  and  wet,  in  such  abundance  that  you  may,  in  a 
small  compass,  gather  whole  cart-loads  of  it.7 

Wounds  and  Aches  cured  by  the  Indians.  For  the  Toothach. 
For  Herpes  Milliares  (sic). 

The  Indians  cure  their  wounds  with  it ; annointing  the 
wound  first  with  raccoon’s  greese  or  wild-cat’s  greese,  and 


9 Gerard,  em.,  p.  404,  — Ophiogbssum  mlgatum,  L.;  common  to  us  and  Europe. 

1 Gerard,  em.,  p.  409,  — Smilacina  bifolia  (L.),  Ker;  common  to  us  and  Europe. 

2 Gerard,  em.,  p.  410.  A mistake  of  our  author’s,  which  can  hardly  be  set  right. 
The  station  is  against  the  plant’s  having  been  Smilacina  trifolia  (L.),  Desf. 

3 Alisma  plantago,  L.,  common  to  Europe  and  America;  “called,  in  New  England, 
water  suck-leaves  and  scurvie-leaves.  You  must  lay  them  whole  to  the  leggs  to  draw 
out  water  between  the  skin  and  the  flesh.”  — Josselyn’s  Voyages , p.  80.  As  to  its  medi- 
cinal properties,  see  Gerard,  p.  419;  and  Wood  and  Bache,  Dispens.,  p.  1298. 

4 Plantago  maritima,  L.  (Gerard,  p.  423),  a native  of  Europe  and  America,  is  our 

only  sea-plantain.  One  of  the  others  was  probably  Trigbchin. 

6 Sagiltaria  sagiltifolia,  L.  (now  called  arrowhead),  common  to  Europe  and  Ame- 
rica; though  here  passing  into  some  varieties  which  are  unknown  in  the  European 
Floras. 

6 Gentiana  saponaria,  L.,  peculiar  to  America,  but  nearly  akin  to  the  European 
G.  pneumonanthe,  L.,  which  our  author  intended.  — Johnson's  Gerard , edit,  cit.,  p.  438. 

7 The  plant  is  green  hellebore  (Veratrum  viride,  Ait.);  so  near,  indeed,  to  the 
white  hellebore  ( V.  album , L.)  of  Europe,  that  it  was  taken  for  it  by  Michaux.  In  his 


174 


ARCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


strewing  upon  it  the  powder  of  the  roots : and,  for  aches, 
they  scarifie  the  grieved  part,  and  annoint  it  with  one  of  the 
foresaid  oyls ; then  strew  upon  it  the  powder.  The  powder 
of  the  root,  put  into  a hollow  tooth,  is  good  for  the  toothach. 
The  root,  sliced  thin  and  boyled  in  vineagar,  is  very  good 
against  herpes  milliaris. 

Arsmart,  both  kinds.8 

Spurge-time.  It  grows  upon  dry,  sandy  sea-banks ; and  is 
very  like  to  rupter-wort.  It  is  full  of  milk.9 

Rupter-wort,  with  the  white  flower.* 1 

Jagged  rose-penny-wort.2 

[44]  Soda  bariglia,  or  massacote  (the  ashes  of  soda),  of 
which  they  make  glasses. 

Glass-wort,  here  called  berrelia.  It  grows  abundantly  in 
salt  marshes.3 


Voyages,  the  author,  after  speaking  of  the  use  of  opium  by  the  Turks,  says,  “ The 
English  in  New  England  take  white  hellebore,  which  operates  as  fairly  with  them  as 
with  the  Indians,”  &c.  (p.  60);  and  see  p.  76,  further. 

8 Polygonum  lapathifolium , L.  ( Hydropiper  of  Gerard,  p.  445),  — for  which,  perhaps, 
P.  hydropiper , L .,  was  mistaken,  — and  P.  Persicaria , L.  ( Persicaria  maculosa  of  Gerard, 
l.  c.),  are  what  the  author  means;  being  the  two  sorts  figured  by  Gerard  himself.  The 
third,  added  by  Johnson,  is  unknown  in  this  country;  and  the  fourth  belongs  to  a very 
different  genus.  P.  Persicaria  is  marked  as  introduced  in  the  late  Mr.  Oakes’s  cata- 
logue of  the  plants  of  Vermont;  and  both  this  and  P.  hydropiper  are  considered  to  be 
naturalized  weeds  by  Dr.  Gray  (Man.,  p.  373).  Josselyn’s  testimony  as  to  the  former, 
as  appearing  to  him  to  be  native  in  1671,  is  therefore  not  without  interest;  and  possibly 
it  is  not  quite  worthless  as  to  the  latter. 

» Chamcesyce , or  spurge-time,  of  Gerard  (edit,  cit.,  p.  504),  is  Euphorbia  chamcesyce, 
L.,  a species  belonging  to  the  Eastern  continent;  for  which  Sloane  (cit.  L.  Sp.  pi.  in 
loco ) appears  to  have  mistaken  our  Euphorbia  maculata , L. ; while  Plukenet  (Aim.  372, 
cit.  L.)  recognizes  the  affinity  of  the  same  plants,  calling  the  latter  Chamcesyce  altera 
Virginiana.  Josselyn’s  spurge-time  may  be  E.  maculata ; but  quite  possibly,  taking 
the  station  which  he  gives  into  the  account,  E.  polygonifolia,  L. 

1 There  are  “several  sorts  of  spurge,”  according  to  the  Voyages  (p.  78);  of  which 
this,  which  I cannot  specifically  refer,  is  possibly  one. 

2 To  this  species  of  Saxifraga , L.,  unknown  to  our  Flora  (Gerard,  p.  528),  our 
author,  with  little  doubt,  referred  the  pretty  8.  Virginiensis,  Michx.  — See  p.  58  of 
this,  note. 

8 Gerard,  em.,  p.  535,  — Salicornia  herbacea,  L.  But  Linnasus  referred  one  of  Clay- 
ton’s Virginia  specimens  (the  rest  he  did  not  distinguish  from  S.  herbacea)  to  a variety, 
/3.  Virginica  (which  he  took  to  be  also  European;  Sp.  PI),  and  afterwards  raised  this 
to  a species,  as  S.  Virginica,  Syst.  Nat.,  vol.  ii.  p.  52,  Willd.  Sp.  PL,  vol.  i.  p.  25.  To 
this  the  more  common  glass  wort  of  our  salt  marshes  is  to  be  referred;  and  we  pos- 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


175 


St.  John’s-wort.* * * 4 
St.  Peter’s-wort.5 
Speedwell  chick-weed.6 
Male  fluellin,  or  speedwell.7 
Upright  peniroyal.8 
Wild  mint.9 
U Cat-mint.1 
Egrimony.2 

V The  lesser  clot-bur.3 


sess,  beside,  a still  better  representative  of  the  European  plant  in  5.  mucronata,  Bigel. 

(FI.  Bost.,  edit.  2,  p.  2),  which  may  perhaps  best  be  taken  for  a peculiar  variety  (S. 
herbacea,  fi.  mucronata , articulorum  dentibus  squamisque  mucronatis,  Enum.  FI.  Cantab., 
Ms. ; and  S.  Virginica  may  well  be  another)  of  a species  common  to  us  and  Europe. 
It  is  certain  that  we  have  plants  strictly  common  to  American  and  European  Floras, 
in  which  the  differences  referable  to  difference  of  atmospheric  and  other  like  conditions 
are  either  not  apparent  or  of  no  account;  and  it  is  possible  that  there  are  yet  other 
species,  now  considered  peculiar  to  America,  which  only  differ  from  older  European 
species  in  those  characters  — whether  of  exuberance  mostly,  or  also  of  impoverish- 
ment— in  which  an  American  variety  of  a plant,  common  to  America  and  Europe, 
might  beforehand  be  expected  to  differ  from  an  European  state  of  the  same.  “ Lin- 
naeus ut  Tournefortii  errores  corrigeret,  varietates  nimis  contraxit.”  — Link,  Phil.  Bot., 

p.  222. 

4 Hypericum  perforatum,  L.  (“  Hypericum,  S.  John's-wort;  in  shops,  P erf  errata."  — 
Gerard,  edit,  cit.,  p.  539).  The  species  is  considered  to  have  been  introduced,  by  most 
American  authors ; and  it  is  possible  that  Josselyn  had  H.  corymbosum,  Muhl.,  in  his 
mind. 

5 Hypericum  quadrangulum,  L.  (Gerard,  p.  542) ; for  which  our  author  doubtless  mis- 
took H.  mutilum,  L.  (H.  parviflorum,  Willd.),  a species  peculiar  to  America;  to  which 
Cutler’s  H.  quadrangulum  (Account  of  Indig.  Veg.,  1.  c.,  p.  474)  is  probably  also  to  be 
referred. 

6 Veronica  arvensis,  L.  (Gerard,  p.  613),  — a native,  at  present,  of  Europe,  Asia, 
Northern  Africa,  and  North  America  (Benth.,  in  DC.  Prodr.,  vol.  x.  p.  482);  but  con- 
sidered to  have  been  introduced  here. 

7 Veronica,  L.  The  species  is  perhaps  V.  officinalis,  L.;  which,  together  with  V. 
serpyllifolia,  L.,  is  considered  by  Prof.  Gray  to  be  both  indigenous  and  introduced  here. 
— Man.  Bot.,  pp.  200-1. 

8 Hedeoma  pulegioicles  (L.)  Pers.  (American  pennyroyal),  is  doubtless  meant.  The 
specific  name  indicates  its  resemblance  — in  smell  and  taste  particularly  — to  Mentha 
pulegium,  L.;  for  which  our  author  and  Cutler  ( l . c.,  p.  461)  mistook  it.  But  the  for- 
mer is  peculiar  to  America. 

9 Mentha  aquatica , L.  Sp.  PI.  (Gerard,  p.  684);  for  which  it  is  likely  our  author 
(and  also  Cutler,  l.  c.,  p.  460)  mistook  M.  Canadensis,  L.,  Gray. 

1 Nepeta  cataria,  L.  (Gerard,  em.,  p.  682);  considered  by  American  botanists  to 
have  been  introduced  from  Europe. 

2 Agrimonia  Eupatoria,  L.  (Gerard,  em.,  p.  712);  common  to  America  and  Europe. 

8 Xanthium  strumarium,  L.,  Gray  (Gerard,  p.  809);  common,  as  a species,  to  both 

continents;  but  in  part,  also,  introduced. — Gray,  Man.,  p.  212. 


170 


ARCHJEOLOGTA  AMERICANA. 


Water-lilly,  witli  yellow  flowers.4  The  Indians  eat  the 
roots,  which  are  long  a-boiling.  They  tast  like  the  liver  of  a 
sheep.  The  moose-deer  feed  much  upon  them  ; at  which  time 
the  Indians  kill  them,  when  their  heads  are  under  water. 

Dragons.  Their  leaves  differ  from  all  the  kinds  with  us. 
They  come  up  in  June.5 

Violets,  of  three  kinds,  — the  white  violet,  which  is  sweet, 
but  not  so  strong  as  our  blew  violets ; blew  violets,  without 
sent ; and  a reddish  violet,  without  sent.  They  do  not  blow 
till  June.6 

[45]  For  Swell' d Legs. 

Woodbine,  good  for  hot  swellings  of  the  legs ; fomenting 
with  the  decoction,  and  applying  the  feces  in  the  form  of  a 
cataplasme.7 

Salomon’s  seal,  of  which  there  is  three  kinds : the  first, 
common  in  England  ; the  second,  Virginia  Salomon’s  seal ; and 
the  third,  differing  from  both,  is  called  treacle-berries,  — hav- 
ing the  perfect  taste  of  treacle  when  they  are  ripe,  — and 
will  keep  good  a long  while.  Certainly  a very  wholesome 
berry,  and  medicinal.8 


4 Nupliar  advena,  Ait.,  — the  common  American  species,  — is  meant;  and  this, 
though  resembling  N.  lutea , Sin.,  of  Europe,  is  distinct  from  it. 

5 Arum,  L.  (Gerard,  p.  381).  The  New-England  species  “differ,”  as  our  author 
says,  “from  all  the  kinds”  in  the  Old  World. 

6 None  of  the  species,  presumably  here  meant,  are  common  to  America  and  Europe. 
Our  author’s  white  violet  is  Viola  hlanda , Willd. 

7 All  our  true  honeysuckles  (“  woodbinde,  or  honisuckles,”  — Gerard,  p.  891 ; Ca- 
pr folium,  Juss.)  are  distinct  from  those  of  Europe;  but  what  the  author  meant  here 
is  uncertain. 

8 Convallaria,  L. ; Polygonatum,  Tourn.;  Smilacina,  Desf.  Many  botanists  have 
referred  our  smaller  Solomon’s  seal  to  the  nearly  akin  C.  muliiflora  of  Europe;  but 
Dr.  Gray  (Manual,  p.  466)  pronounces  the  former  a distinct  American  species.  The 
second  of  Josselyn’s  species  is  the  “ Polygonatum  Virginianum,  or  Virginian’s  Salomon’s 
seale”  of  Johnson’s  Gerard  (p.  905),  and  also  of  Morison  (Hist.,  cil.  L.),  and  earliest 
described  and  figured  hv  Cornuti  as  P.  Canadense,  cf c.,  which  is  Smilacina  slellata, 
(L.)  Desf.;  peculiar  to  America.  The  third  is  set  down  by  our  author,  at  p.  56,  among 
the  “plants  proper  to  the  country;”  and  Wood  (New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap,  v.)  mentions 
it  among  eatable  wild  fruits,  by  the  same  name.  It  is  probably  Smilacina  racemosa , 
( L . ) Desf.,  — a suggestion  which  I owe  to  my  friend  Rev.  J.  L.  Russell’s  notes  upon 
Josselyn’s  plants,  in  Hovey’s  Magazine  (March,  April,  and  May,  1858);  papers  which 
were  published  after  the  manuscript  of  this  edition  had  passed  from  the  hands  of  the 
editor,  — and  is  also  confined  to  this  continent. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


177 


Dove’s-foot.9 
Herb  Robert.9 
Knobby  crane’s-bill.9 

For  Agues. 

Raven’s-claw,  which  flowers  in  May,  and  is  admirable  for 
agues.9 
Cink-foil.* 1 
Tormentile.1 

Avens,  with  the  leaf  of  mountane-avens,  the  flower  and 
root  of  English  avens.2 3 * * * * 
Strawberries.8 


9 Geranium,  L.  The  first  is  G.  Caroliniamm , L.,  which  nearly  resembles  Gerard’s 
dove’s-foot  (p.  938);  the  second  is  G.  Robertianum , L.,  common  to  us  and  Europe; 
and  the  third  (Gerard,  p.  940)  — which  cannot  be  G.  dissectum  — was  meant,  it  is  likely 
to  be  taken  for  synonymous  with  the  fourth,  or  raven’s-claw,  — doubtless  our  lovely 
G.  maculaium,  L.,  which  belongs  to  that  group  of  species  which  the  old  botanists  dis- 
tinguished by  the  common  name  Geranium  batrachioides,  or  crow-foot  geranium,  which 
flowers  in  May,  and  is  of  well-known  value  in  medicine;  and  the  “knobby”  root, 
attributed  to  Josselyn’s  third  kind,  favors  this  opinion. 

1 The  genus  Potentilla,  L.,  in  general,  is  perhaps  intended  by  cinque-foil;  and  al- 
though our  author  probably  confounded  the  common  and  variable  Potentilla  Canadensis, 
L.,  with  the  nearly  akin  P.  replans  and  P.  verna,  L.,  of  Europe,  yet  the  larger  part  of 
our  New-England  species  are,  with  little  doubt,  common  to  both  continents.  What 
Josselyn  referred  to  Tormentilla,  L.,  — a genus  not  now  separated  from  Potentilla, — 
was  probably  a state  of  P.  Canadensis,  which  resembles  P.  reptans,  L.,  as  remarked 
above  (and  was,  indeed,  mistaken  for  it  by  Cutler,  — l.  c.,  p.  453),  as  this  does  Tormen- 
tilla replans,  L. 

2 Geum  strictum,  Ait.,  — not  found  in  England,  but  European  (Gray,  Man.,  p.  116), 
— is  indicated  by  the  author’s  phrase;  and  see  the  Voyages,  p.  78,  for  his  opinion  of 
its  medicinal  virtue. 

3 Fragaria  vesca,  L.  (the  common  wood-strawberry  of  Europe),  is  native  here, 
according  to  Oakes  (Catal.  Verm.,  p.  12),  “ especially  on  mountains;”  and  I have  even 
gathered  it,  but  possibly  naturalized,  on  the  woody  banks  of  Fresh  Pond  in  Cam- 
bridge. Our  more  common  strawberry  was  not  separated  from  the  European  by  Lin- 
naeus, but  is  now  reckoned  a distinct  species.  “ There  is  likewise  strawberries  in 

abundance,”  says  Wood  (New-England’s  Prospect,  l.  c. ),  — very  large  ones;  some  being 
two  inches  about.  One  may  gather  half  a bushel  in  a forenoon.”  — “ This  berry,”  says 

Roger  Williams  (Key,  in  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  iii.  p.  221),  “ is  the  wonder  of  all  the  fruits  grow- 
ing naturally  in  those  parts.  It  is  of  itself  excellent;  so  that  one  of  the  chiefest  doc- 
tors of  England  was  wont  to  say,  that  God  could  have  made,  but  God  never  did  make, 

a better  berry.  In  some  parts,  where  the  natives  have  planted,  I have  many  times  seen 

as  many  as  would  fill  a good  ship,  within  few  miles’  compass.  The  Indians  bruise  them 
in  a mortar,  and  mix  them  with  meal,  and  make  strawberry-bread.”  Gookin  also 

speaks  of  Indian-bread.  — Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  i.  p.  150. 

23 


178 


ARCHzEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Wild  angelica,  majoris  and  minoris.4 

Alexanders,  which  grow  upon  rocks  by  the  seashore.5 

[46]  Yarrow,  with  the  white  flower.6 

Columbines,  of  a flesh-colour ; growing  upon  rocks.7 

Oak  of  Hierusalem.8 

Achariston  is  an  excellent  medicine  for  stopping  of  the 
lungs  upon  cold,  ptisick,  Ac. 

Oak  of  Cappadocia.8  Both  much  of  a nature  : but  oak  of 
Hierusalem  is  stronger  in  operation ; excellent  for  stuffing 
of  the  lungs  upon  colds,  shortness  of  wind,  and  the  ptisick, — 
maladies  that  the  natives  are  often  troubled  with.  I helped 
several  of  the  Indians  with  a drink  made  of  two  gallons  of 
molosses-wort  (for,  in  that  part  of  the  country  where  I abode, 
we  made  our  beer  of  molosses,  water,  bran,  chips  of  sassafras- 
root,  and  a little  wormwood,  well  boiled) ; into  which  I put, 
of  oak  of  Hierusalem,  cat-mint,  sow-thistle,  of  each  one  hand- 
ful ; of  Enulci  campana  root,  one  ounce  ; liquorice,  scrap’d, 
brused,  and  cut  in  peices,  one  ounce  ; sassafras-root,  cut  into 


4 The  two  plants  here  intended,  and  supposed  by  the  author  to  correspond  with  the 
“wild  angelica”  and  “great  wilde  angelica”  of  Gerard  (pp.  999-1000),  may  perhaps 
he  taken  for  the  same  which  Cornuti  ( Canad.  PI.  Ilist.,  pp.  196-200),  thirty  years  before, 
had  designated  as  new,  — Josselyn’s  Angelica  sylvestris  minor  being  Angelica  lucida 

Canadensis  of  Cornuti,  which  is  A.  lucida , L.  (and  probably,  as  the  French  botanist 
describes  the  fruit  as  “minus  foliacea  vulgaribus,”  also  Archangelica  peregrina,  Nutt.); 
and  his  Angelica  sylvestris  major  being  A.  atropurpurea  Canadensis  of  Cornuti,  or  A. 
atropurpurea,  L. 

6  Smyrnium  aureum , L.  (golden  Alexanders),  now  separated  from  that  genus,  was 
mistaken,  it  is  quite  likely,  for  S.  olusalrum , L.  (true  Alexanders),  to  which  it  bears  a 
considerable  resemblance.  — Gerard , p.  1019. 

6 Achillea  millefolium,  L.  Oakes  has  marked  this  as  introduced  (Catal.  Vermont, 
p.  17):  but  it  appeared  to  our  author,  in  1672,  to  be  indigenous;  and  Dr.  Gray  reckons 
it  among  plants  common  to  both  hemispheres. — Statistics  of  Amer.  Flora , in  Am.  Jour. 
Sci.,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  70.  The  author’s  reference  is  to  common  yarrow.  — Gerard, 
p.  1072. 

7 Aquilegia  Canadensis,  L.  As  elsewhere,  the  author  probably  means  here  only 
that  the  genus  is  common  to  both  continents. 

8 At  p.  56,  both  of  these  are  set  down  among  the  “ plants  proper  to  the  country.” 
The  first,  to  follow  Gerard  (p.  1108),  is  Chenopodium  hotrys,  L.,  — a native  of  the  south 
of  Europe,  and  considered  as  an  introduced  species  here.  It  has  reputation  in  diseases 
of  the  chest. — Wood  & Bache,  Dispens.,p.  213.  Josselyn’s  oak  of  Cappadocia  (Gerard, 
p.  1108)  is  an  American  species,  — Ambrosia  elatior,  L.  Cutler  says  of  it  (l.  c.,  p.  489), 
“ It  has  somewhat  the  smell  of  camphire.  It  is  used  in  antiseptick  fomentations.” 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


179 


thin  chips,  one  ounce  ; anny-seed  and  sweet-fennel  seed,  of 
each  one  spoonful,  bruised.  Boil  these  in  a close  pot,  upon 
a soft  fire,  to  the  consumption  of  one  gallon ; then  take  it  off, 
and  stir  it  gently.  You  may,  if  you  will,  [47]  boil  the 
streined  liquor  with  sugar  to  a syrup  : then,  when  it  is  cold, 
put  it  up  into  glass  bottles,  and  take  thereof  three  or  four 
spoonfuls  at  a time ; letting  it  run  down  your  throat  as  lea- 
surely  as  possibly  you  can.  Do  thus  in  the  morning,  in  the 
afternoon,  and  at  night  going  to  bed. 

Goose-grass,  or  clivers.9 

Fearn.* 1 2 

Brakes.1 

Wood-sorrel,  with  the  yellow  flower.1 

Elm.3 

Line-tree,  both  kinds.4 

A Way  to  draw  out  Oyl  of  Akorns,  or  the  like,  d:c. 

Majfle.  Of  the  ashes  of  this  tree  the  Indians  make  a lye, 
with  which  they  force  out  oyl  from  oak-akorns,  that  is  highly 
esteemed  by  the  Indians.5 

Dew-grass.6 


9 Galium  aparine,  L.  (Gerard,  edit,  cit.,  p.  1122),  common  to  America  and  Europe. — 
Compare  Gray,  Man.,  p.  170. 

1 The  “Filix  mas,  or  male  feme,”  of  Gerard,  edit,  cit.,  p.  1128  (for,  says  he,  of  the 
“ divers  sorts  of  feme  . . . there  be  two  sorts,  according  to  the  old  writers,  — the  male 
and  the  female;  and  these  be  properly  called  feme:  the  others  have  their  proper 
names”),  is  the  collective  designation  of  four  species  of  Aspidium;  of  which  all,  ac- 
cording to  Pursh,  and  certainly  three,  are  natives  of  both  continents,  — AA.  cristatum, 
Filix  mas,  Filix  foemina,  and  aculeatum,  W illd.  “ Filix  fosmina  (female  feme,  or  brakes,” 
of  Gerard,  l.  c.)  is  Pteris  aquilina,  L. ; also  common  to  us  and  Europe.  The  other  Filices 
mentioned  by  our  author  are  Ophioglossum  vulgatum , L.  (p.  42);  and  Adiantum  pedatum, 
L.  (p.  55). 

2 Oxalis  corniculata,  L.  (Gerard,  em.,  p.  1202),  common  to  Europe  and  America. 

3 TJlmus , L.  There  are  no  species  common  to  America  and  Europe. 

4 See  the  Voyages,  p.  69,  where  the  author  has  it  “the  line-tree,  with  long  nuts: 
the  other  kind  I could  never  find.”  The  former  was  Tilia  Americana,  L.,  — a species 
peculiar  to  America. 

5 See  p.  48;  and  Voyages,  p.  69.  None  of  our  species  are  found  in  Europe. 

6 The  plant  intended  is  doubtless  the  same  with  that  spoken  of  in  the  Voyages, 
p.  80,  — “ Rosa  soils,  sundew,  moor-grass.  This  plant  I have  seen  more  of  than  ever  I 


180 


ARCHHDOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Earth-nut,  which  are  of  divers  kinds,  — one  bearing  very 
beautiful  flowers.* * 7 

Fuss-balls,  very  large.8 

Mushrooms ; some  long,  and  no  bigger  than  one’s  finger ; 
others  jagged,  flat,  round  : none  like  our  great  mushrooms 
in  England.  Of  these,  some  are  of  a scarlet  colour ; others, 
a deep  yellow,  &c.8 

[48]  Blew-flowered  pimpernel.9 

Noble  liverwort ; one  sort  with  white  flowers,  the  other 
with  blew.1 

Blackberry.2 

Dewberry.2 

Raspberry,  here  called  mulberiy.2 


saw  in  my  whole  life  before  in  England,”  &c.  Both  our  common  New-England  species 

of  Drosera  are  also  natives  of  Europe. 

7 “ Differing  much  from  those  in  England.  One  sort  of  them  bears  a most  beauti- 
ful flower”  (p.  56,  where  it  is  rightly  placed  among  plants  “proper  to  the  country  ”). 
The  author  refers  here,  doubtless,  to  Apios  tuberosa,  Moench.  (ground-nut  of  New 
England),  which  was  raised  at  Paris,  from  American  seeds,  by  Vespasian  Robin,  and 
figured  from  his  specimens  by  Cornuti  (Canad.,  p.  200)  in  1635;  but  it  was' celebrated, 
ten  years  earlier,  in  “Nova  Anglia,”  — a curious  poem  by  the  Rev.  William  Morrell, 
who  came  over  with  Capt.  Robert  Gorges  in  1623,  and  spent  about  a year  at  Wey- 
mouth and  Plymouth,  publishing  his  book  in  1625  (repr.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  i.  p.  125,  &c.), 
— as  follows : — 

“ Vimine  gramineo  nux  subterranea  suavis 
Serpit  humi,  tenui  flavo  sub  cortice,  piugui 
Et  placido  nucleo  nivei  candoris  ab  iutra, 

Melliflua  parcos  hilarans  dulcedine  gustus, 

Donee  in  asstivum  Phoebus  conscenderit  axem. 

His  nucleis  laute  versutus  vescitur  Indus: 

His  exempta  fames  segnis  nostratibus  omnis 
Dulcibus  his  vires  revocantur  victibus  almae.” 

.8  See  p.  52  and  Voyages  (pp.  70,  81)  for  other  notices  of  Fungi;  and  Voyages, 
p.  81,  for  the  only  mention  of  Algae. 

9 Female  pimpernell  ( Gerard,  em.,  p.  617),  — Anagallis  arvensis,  y,  Sm. ; A.  ecerulea , 
Schreb.,  — but  scarcely  differing,  except  in  color,  from  the  scarlet  pimpernel,  which 
has  long  (“in  clayey  ground,”  — Cutler , l.  c.,  1785)  been  an  inhabitant  of  the  coasts  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  though  doubtless  introduced. 

1 Hepatica  triloba , Chaix.  (Anemone  hepalica,  L.),  common  to  Europe  and  America; 
occurring  occasionally  with  white  flowers.  — Gerard , em.,  p.  1203. 

2 Rubus,  L.  The  red  raspberry  of  this  country  is  hardly  other  than  an  American 
variety  of  the  European  ( R . Idaeus , var.  strigosus,  caule  petiolis  pedunculis  ealyeeque 
aculento-hispidissimis,  Enum.  PI.  Agri  Cantab,  1843,  Ms.);  upon  which  see  Gray  (Man., 
p.  121;  and  Statistics,  &c.,  1.  c.,  p.  81).  11.  trijlorus,  Richards.,  is  also  very  near  to, 
and  was  once  considered  the  same  as,  the  European  R.  saxalilis , L.  The  rest  of  our 


new-england’s  rarities  discoyered. 


181 


Gooseberries,  of  a deep-red  colour.* * 3 

Hawthorn ; the  haws  being  as  big  as  services,  and  very 
good  to  eat,  and  not  so  stringent  as  the  haws  in  England.4 
Toad-flax.5  * 

Pellamount,  or  mountain-time.6 
Mouse-ear  minor.7 

The  Making  of  Oyl  of  Ahorns.  To  strengthen  weak  Members. 
For  scalVd  Heads. 

There  is  oak  of  three  kinds,  — white,  red,  and  black.  The 
white  is  excellent  to  make  canoes  of,  — shallopes,  ships,  and 
other  vessels,  for  the  sea  ; and  for  claw-board  and  pipe-staves. 
The  black  is  good  to  make  waynscot  of : and  out  of  the  white- 


New-England  raspberries  and  blackberries  appear  to  be  specifically  distinct  from  those 

of  Europe.  The  cloud-berry,  mentioned  at  p.  60,  is  there  set  down  among  plants  proper 
to  the  country;  and  may  therefore  not  be  the  true  cloud-berry  (Gerard,  p.  1273),  or 
Rubus  chamoemorus,  L.,  which  is  common  to  both  continents. 

3 The  New-England  gooseberries  are  peculiar  to  this  country.  The  author  no 
doubt  intends  Ribes  hirlellum , Michx.  (Gray,  Man.,  p.  137);  as  see  further  his  Voyages, 
p.  72. 

4 Crataegus , L.  But  the  species  are  peculiar  to  this  country,  as  Josselvn  implies 
with  respect  to  the  haws  which  he  notices.  These,  no  doubt,  included  C.  lomentosa , L., 
Gray;  and  perhaps,  also,  C.  coccima , L.  Wood  says,  “The  white  thorn  affords  hawes 
as  big  as  an  English  cherry;  which  is  esteemed  above  a cherry  for  his  goodness  and 
pleasantness  to  the  taste.”  — New-England' s Prospect,  chap.  v.  At  page  72  of  his  Voy- 
ages, the  author  mentions  “ a small  shrub,  which  is  very  common ; growing  sometimes 
to  the  height  of  elder;  bearing  a berry  like  in  shape  to  the  fruit  of  the  white  thorn;  of 
a pale,  yellow  colour  at  first,  then  red  (when  it  is  ripe,  of  a deep  purple);  of  a deli- 
cate, aromatical  tast,  but  somewhat  stiptick,  — which  is  Pyrus  arbutifolia , L.  Higgin- 
son  (New-England’s  Plantation,  l.  c.,  p.  119)  speaks  of  our  haws  almost  as  highly  as 
Wood. 

5 Great  toad-flax  (Gerard,  em.,  p.  550);  Linaria  vulgaris,  Moench.  Compare  De 
Candolle  (Geog.  Bot.,  vol.  ii.  p.  716)  for  a sketch  of  the  American  history  of  this  now- 
familiar  plant,  which  the  learned  author  cannot  trace  before  Bigelow’s  date  ( FI.  Bost., 
edit.  1)  of  1814.  But  it  is  certainly  Cutler’s  “snapdragon;  . . . blossoms  yellow,  with 
a mixture  of  scarlet;  common  by  roadsides  in  Lynn  and  Cambridge”  (l.  c.,  1785): 
though  he  strangely  prefixes  the  Linncean  phrase  for  Antirrhinum  Canadense,  L. ; and 
there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  Josselyn  may  very  well  have  seen  it  in  1671. 

6 Gerard,  p.  653  ( Teucrium , L.).  The  author  may  have  intended  to  reckon  the 
genus  only.  Our  species  is  peculiar  to  this  continent. 

7 The  designation  is  uncertain.  The  old  botanists  gave  the  name  Auricula  muris , 
or  mouse-ear,  to  species  of  Myosotis , Draba,  Eieracium,  and  Gnaphalium.  Josselyn’s 
plant  may  most  probably  be  Antennaria  plantaginifolia,  Hook,  (mouse-ear  of  New 
England),  which  is  very  near  to  A.  dioica  of  Europe. — Gray,  Statistics , cf-e.,  1.  c., 

p.  81. 


182 


ARCHRUOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


oak  acorns  (which  is  the  acorn  bears  delight  to  feed  upon), 
the  natives  draw  an  oyl ; taking  the  rottenest  maple-wood, 
which,  being  burnt  to  ashes,  they  make  a strong  lye  there- 
with, whirein  they  boyl  their  white-oak  acorns  until  the  oyl 
swim  on  the  top  in  great  quantity.  This  [49]  they  fleet  off, 
and  put  into  bladders,  to  annoint  their  naked  limbs ; which 
corroborates  them  exceedingly.  They  eat  it,  likewise,  with 
their  meat.  It  is  an  excellent,  clear,  and  sweet  oyl.  Of  the 
moss  that  grows  at  the  roots  of  the  white  oak,  the  Indesses 
make  a strong  decoction,  with  which  they  help  their  papouses 
or  young  children’s  scall’d  heads.8 

Juniper,  which,  Cardanus  saith,  is  cedar  in  hot  countries, 
and  juniper  in  cold  countries.  It  is  here  very  dwarfish  and 
shrubby ; growing,  for  the  most  part,  by  the  sea-side.9 

Willow.* 1 

Spurge-lawrel,  called  here  poyson -berry.  It  kills  the 
English  cattle,  if  they  chance  to  feed  upon  it ; especially 
calves.2 

Gaul,  or  noble  mirtle.3 

Elder.4 


8 Quercus  alba,  L.;  Q.  rubra , L.;  and  Q.  tinctoria,  Bartr.  Wood’s  account  of  the 
oaks  (New-England’s  Prospect,  chap,  v.)  is  similar.  In  his  Voyages,  p.  61,  Josselyn 
gives  us  “ the  ordering  of  red  oake  for  wainscot.  When  they  have  cut  it  down  and 
clear’d  it  from  the  branches,  they  pitch  the  body  of  the  tree  in  a muddy  place  in  a 
river,  with  the  head  downward,  for  some  time.  Afterwards  they  draw  it  out;  and, 
when  it  is  seasoned  sufficiently,  they  saw  it  into  boards  for  wainscot;  and  it  will 
branch  out  into  curious  works.” 

9 Juniperus  communis , L.;  common  to  both  continents.  But  the  author  did  not  pro- 
bably distinguish  from  it  J.  Virginiana , L. ; which  is  frequent,  and  often  dwarfish,  near 
the  sea. 

1 Salix,  L. ; the  genus  only  meant  here,  it  is  likely. 

2 Daphne  Laureola,  L.  (Gerard,  p.  1404),  with  which  Josselyn  may  have  considered 
Kalmia  anguslifolia,  L.,  in  some  sort,  allied.  The  latter  has  long  been  known  in  New 
England  as  dwarf  or  low  laurel. 

8 Myrica  Gale , L.  (Gerard,  p.  1414);  common  to  Europe  and  America. 

4 Sambucus , L.  Our  S.  Canadensis , L.,  differs  very  little  from  the  common  elder  of 
Europe,  except,  as  our  author  in  his  Voyages  says  (p.  71),  in  being  “shrubbio,”  and  in 
not  having  “a  smell  so  strong.” — Cf  DC.  Prodr.,  vol.  ii.  p.  322;  Gerard , p.  1421 
The  other  North-American  elder  ( S . pubens,  Michx.)  is  at  least  equally  near  to  the 
European  & racemosa,  L.,  according  to  Prof.  Gray. 


new-england's  rarities  discovered. 


183 


v Dwarf-elder.5 

For  a Cut  with  a Bruse. 

Alder.  An  Indian,  bruising  and  cutting  of  his  knee  with  a 
fall,  used  no  other  remedy  than  alder-bark,  chewed  fasting, 
and  laid  to  it ; which  did  soon  heal  it.6 

To  take  Fire  out  of  a Burn. 

The  decoction  is  also  excellent  to  take  [50]  the  fire  out  of 
a burn  or  scald. 

For  Wounds  and  Cuts. 

For  wounds  and  cuts,  make  a strong  decoction  of  bark  of 
alder : pour  of  it  into  the  wound,  and  drink  thereof. 

Basel.7 

For  sore  Mouths , Falling  of  the  Pallat. 

Filberd,  both  with  hairy  husks  upon  the  nuts,  and  setting 
hollow  from  the  nut,  and  fill’d  with  a kind  of  water  of  an 
astringent  taste.  It  is  very  good  for  sore  mouths,  and  falling 
of  the  pallat ; as  is  the  whole  green  nut,  before  it  comes  to 
kernel,  burnt  and  pulverized.  The  kernels  are  seldom  with- 
out maggots  in  them.7 


5 “ There  is  a sort  of  dwarf-elder,  that  grows  by  the  sea-side,  that  hath  a red  pith. 
The  berries  of  both”  — that  is,  of  this  and  of  the  true  elder  mentioned  above  — “are 
smaller  than  English  elder;  not  round,  but  corner’d.” — Voyages,  p.  71.  Gerard’s 
dwarf-elder  (p.  1425)  is  Sambucus  ebulus,  L.  Josselyn’s  may  have  been  a Viburnum; 
for  this  genus  was  confused  with  Sambucus  by  the  elder  botanists.  Wood  (New-Eng- 
land  Prospect,  chap,  v.)  speaks  of — 

“ Small  elder n,  by  the  Indian  fletchers  sought;  ” — 
which  was  perhaps  arrow-wood,  or  Viburnum  dentatum , L. 

6 Alnus,  Tourn.  One  of  the  three  New-England  species  (.4.  incana,  Willd.)  is 
common  to  Europe  and  America.  Another  (A.  serrulala,  Willd.)  “bears  so  great  a 
resemblance,”  says  F.  A.  Michaux,  to  the  common  European  alder  (A.  glutinosa,  Willd.) 
“ in  its  flowers,  its  seeds,  its  leaves,  its  wood,  and  its  bark,  as  to  render  a separate 
figure  unnecessary;  the  only  difference  observable  between  them”  being  “that  the 
European  species  is  larger,  and  has  smaller  leaves.”  — Sylva,  vol.  ii.  p.  114.  Compare 
Gray,  Statistics,  &c.,  1.  c.,  p.  83.  A.  viridis,  our  third  species,  is  common  to  Europe 
and  this  country. 

i Corylus,  L.  Our  species,  which  are  peculiar  to  America,  are  both  indicated: 
the  “filberd,  . . . with  hairy  husks  upon  the  nuts,”  being  C.  rostrala,  Ait.  (beaked 
hazel);  and  that  “setting  hollow  from  the  nut,”  — that  is,  larger  than  the  nut, — C. 
Americana.  Wangenh.  (common  hazel). 


184 


ARCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


The  Figure  op  the  Walnut. 

Walnut.  The  nuts  differ  much  from 
ours  in  Europe  ; they  being  smooth,  — 
much  like  a nutmeg  in  shape,  and  not 
much  bigger : some  three-cornered ; all 
of  them  but  thinly  replenished  with 
kernels.8 

[51]  Chestnuts;  very  sweet  in  taste,  and  may  be  (as  they 
usually  are)  eaten  raw.  The  Indians  sell  them  to  the  English 
for  twelve  pence  the  bushel.9 
Beech.1 


8 Carya , Nutt.  In  the  Voyages,  p.  69,  the  author  speaks  of  the  “ walnut,  which  is 
divers:  some  bearing  square  nuts;  others  like  ours,  but  smaller.  There  is  likewise 
black  walnut,  of  precious  use  for  tables,  cabinets,  and  the  like”  ( Juglans  nigra,  L.). 
“The  walnut-tree,”  continues  Josselyn,  “is  the  toughest  wood  in  the  countrie,  and 
therefore  made  use  of  for  hoops  and  bowes;  there  being  no  yews  there  growing.  In 
England,  they  made  their  bowes  usually  of  witch-hasel”  (that  is,  witch-elm, — Ulmus 
montana,  Bauh.,  Lindl. ; as  see  Gerard,  p.  1481:  but  Carpinus , “in  Essex',  is  called 
witch-hasell,”  — ib.),  ash,  yew,  the  best  of  outlandish  elm ; but  the  Indians  make  theirs 
of  walnut.”  This  was  hickory,  and  what  Wood  says  belongs  doubtless  to  the  same. 
He  calls  it  “ something  different  from  the  English  walnut;  being  a great  deal  more  tough 
and  more  serviceable,  and  altogether  heavy.  And  whereas  our  guns,  that  are  stocked 
with  English  walnut,  are  soon  broken  and  cracked  in  frost,  — being  a brittle  wood, — 
we  are  driven  to  stock  them  new  with  the  country  walnut,  which  will  endure  all  blows 
and  weather ; lasting  time  out  of  mind.”  After  speaking  favorably  of  the  fruit,  he  adds 
(New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap,  vi.),  “ There  is  likewise  a tree,  in  some  parts  of  the  country, 
that  bears  a nut  as  big  as  a pear,”  — the  butternut,  doubtless  (Juglans  cinerea,  L.). 
Josselyn  has  told  us  (p.  48)  of  the  oil  which  the  Indians  managed  to  get  from  the  acorns 
of  the  white  oak.  Roger  Williams  (Key,  l.  c.,  p.  220)  says  our  native  Americans  made 
“ of  these  walnuts  ...  an  excellent  oil,  good  for  many  uses,  but  especially  for  the 
anointing  of  their  heads.”  Michaux  ( Sylva , vol.  i.  p.  163)  says  the  Indians  used  the 
oil  of  the  butternut,  and  also  (p.  185)  of  the  shag-bark,  “ to  season  their  aliments.” 
Williams  adds  ( l . c.),  “Of  the  chips  of  the  walnut-tree  — the  bark  taken  off — some 
English  in  the  country  make  excellent  beer,  both  for  taste,  strength,  colour,  and  inof- 
fensive opening  operation.” 

9 Castanea  vesca,  Gaertn. ; common  to  Europe  and  America.  Our  chestnut  is  con- 
sidered to  differ  from  the  European  only  as  an  American  variety  of  a species  common  to 
both  continents  might  be  expected  to.  “ The  Indians  have  an  art  of  drying  their  chest- 
nuts, and  so  to  preserve  them  in  their  barns  for  a dainty  all  the  year.” — R.  Williams,  l.  c. 

1 Neither  Wood  nor  R.  Williams  makes  mention  of  it.  The  younger  Michaux  con- 
sidered our  beech  distinct  from  the  European;  but  Mr.  Nuttall  makes  it  only  a variety 
of  it;  while  Prof.  Gray  puts  both  trees  in  his  list  of  “ very  close  representative  species.” 
— Statistics,  <f-c.,  1.  c.,  p.  81. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


Ash.2 

Quick-beam,  or  wild  ash.3 


185 


Coals  of  Birch,  pulverized  and  wrought  ivith  the  white  of  an 
Egg  to  a Salve,  is  a gallant  Remedy  for  dry  Scurfy-sores 
upon  the  Shins,  and  for  bruised  Wounds  and  Cuts. 

Birch,  white  and  black.  The  bark  of  birch  is  used  by  the 
Indians  for  bruised  wounds  and  cuts,  — boyled  very  tender, 
and  stampt  betwixt  two  stones  to  a plaister,  and  the  decoction 
thereof  poured  into  the  wound ; and  also  to  fetch  the  fire 
out  of  burns  and  scalds.4 
Poplar,  but  differing  in  leaf.5 

Plumb-tree,  several  kinds  ; bearing,  some  long,  round,  white, 
yellow,  red,  and  black  plums,  — all  differing  in  their  fruit 
from  those  in  England.6 
Wild  purcelane.7 


2 Fraxinus,  L.  Our  species  are  peculiar  to  this  continent.  I cannot  account  for 
Wood’s  saying,  “It  is  different  from  the  ash  of  England;  being  brittle  and  good  for  lit- 
tle, so  that  walnut  is  used  for  it.”  — New-Eng.  Prospect , chap.  vi. 

8 Sorbus , L.  (Gerard,  p.  1473).  Our  mountain-ash  (S.  Americana,  Willd.)  is  quite 
near  to  the  quicken,  or  mountain-ash  of  the  north  of  Europe  ( S . aucuparia,  L.);  but 
hardly,  perhaps,  to  be  reduced  to  an  American  variety  of  it,  as  the  elder  Michaux 
(FI.  Amer.,  vol.  i.  p.  290)  proposed.  Compare  Gray,  Statistics,  &c.,  1.  c.,  p.  82. 

4 Except  the  small  white  birch  (B.  populifolia , Ait.),  which  Mr.  Spach  reduces  to  a 

variety  of  the  European  B.  alba,  L.,  — in  which  he  is  sustained  by  Prof.  Gray  (Man., 
p.  411),  — and  the  dwarf-birch  (B.  nana,  L.)  of  our  alpine  regions,  all  our  species  are 
peculiar  to  this  continent.  — See  the  author’s  Voyages,  p.  69,  for  another  mention  of 
the  birches. 

6 Populus , L.  Our  species  are  peculiar  to  the  country,  as  the  author’s  remark  sug- 
gests. Wood  ( l . c.)  notices  “ the  ever-trembling  asps.” 

6 “ The  plumbs  of  the  country  be  better  for  plumbs  than  the  cherries  be  for  cher- 
ries. They  be  black  and  yellow;  about  the  bigness  of  damsons;  of  a reasonable  good 
taste.”  — New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap.  v.  Primus  maritima,  Wangenh.  (beech-plum),  and 
P.  Americana,  Marsh,  (wild  yellow  plum),  are  no  doubt  here  intended;  as  also,  it  is 
likely,  by  Josselyn,  who,  it  is  evident,  in  this  place  had  only  the  genus  in  mind  as 
“common  with  us  in  England.”  — See  p.  61  for  the  author’s  mention  of  the  “wild 
cherry.” 

7 Portulaca  oleracea,  L.  (Gerard,  p.  521).  “In  cornfields.  It  is  eaten  as  a pot-herb, 
and  esteemed  by  some  as  little  inferior  to  asparagus.”  — Cutler ; Account  of  Indigenous 
Vegetables  (1785),  l.  c.,  p.  447.  Considered  to  have  been  introduced  here;  but  our 
author  enables  us  to  carry  back  the  date  of  its  introduction,  without  reasonable  doubt, 
to  the  first  settlement  of  the  country.  Mr.  Nuttall  regarded  the  species  as  indigenous 

24 


186 


ARCEL-EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Wood-wax,  wherewith  they  dye  many  pretty  colours.* * * 8 

Red  and  black  currans.9 

[52]  For  the  Gout,  or  any  Ach. 

Spunck,  an  excrescence  growing  out  of  black  birch.  The 
Indians  use  it  for  touchwood;  and  therewith  they  help  the 
sciatica,  or  gout  of  the  hip,  or  any  great  ach,  — burning 
the  patient  with  it  in  two  or  three  places  upon  the  thigh, 
and  upon  certain  veins.1 


on  the  plains  of  the  Missouri;  but  this  plant,  “too  closely  resembling  the  common 

purslane,”  according  to  Prof.  Gray  (Man.,  p.  64),  has  been  separated  as  specifically 

distinct  by  Dr.  Engelmann. 

8 Genista  tinctoria , L.  ( Genistella  tinctoria , — greenweed,  or  dyers’  weed;  Gerard, 
p.  1316).  “ We  shall  not  need  to  speake  of  the  use  that  diers  make  thereof,”  says  the 
latter.  Our  author  could  hardly  have  been  mistaken  about  so  well-known  a plant  as 
this;  which  he  probably  met  with  in  one  of  his  visits  to  the  neighborhood  of  Boston, — 
long  the  only  American  station  for  it.  There  is  a tradition  that  it  was  introduced  here 
by  Gov.  Endicott;  which  may  have  been  some  forty  years  before  Josselyn  finished  his 
herborizing,  — enough  to  account  for  its  naturalization  then.  It  was  long  confined  to 
Salem  (“pastures  between  New  Mills  and  Salem,” — Cutler , l.  c.,  1785);  but  occurred 
to  me  sparingly,  in  1841,  on  the  shores  of  Cambridge  Bay,  and  also  on  roadsides  in 
Old  Cambridge.  “ Woad-seed”  is  set  down,  in  a memorandum  of  the  Governor  and 
Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  before  February,  1628,  to  be  sent  to  New  England 
(Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  i.  p.  24);  and  though  Isalis  tinctoria , L.,  is  true  woad,  Reseda 
luteola,  L.  (wold,  or  weld),  and  our  Genista  (woadwaxen),  have,  it  is  said  (Rees’s  Cycl., 
in  loco),  been  known  “in  English  herbals  under  that  name.” 

9 “ Current-bushes  are  of  two  kinds,  — red  and  black.  The  black  currents,  which 
are  larger  than  the  red,  . . . are  reasonable  pleasant  in  eating.”  — Voyages , p.  72.  Our 
black  currant  is  Ribes  Jloridum,  Herit.,  — considered  by  Linnaeus  (Sp.  PL,  p.  291)  only  a 
variety  of  R.  nigrum,  L.,  the  true  black  currant  of  the  gardens;  and  our  red  currant, 
which  I have  gathered  in  the  White  Mountains,  — far  below  the  region  of  R.  rigens, 
Michx.,  the  more  common  red  currant  there,  — appears  to  be  undistinguishable  from 
R.  rubrum,  L.  (the  red  currant  of  gardens);  unless,  possibly,  as  an  American  variety 
of  it.  This  is  probably  R.  alhinermum,  Michx.  (FI.,  vol.  i.  p.  110;  Pursh,  FI.,  vol.  i. 
p.  163). 

1 Polyporus,  Mich.,  sp.  — In  his  Voyages,  p.  70,  the  author  speaks  of  “a  stately 
tree,  growing  here  and  there  in  valleys,  not  like  to  any  trees  in  Europe;  having  a 
smooth  bark,  of  a dark-brown  colour,  the  leaves  like  great  maple,  in  England  called 
sycamor;  but  larger,”  — which  may  be  Platanus  occidenlalis,  L.  (buttonwood).  And 
Wood  enables  us  to  add  one  more  to  this  early  account  of  the  genera  of  plants,  which 
we  possess,  common  to  the  Old  World.  He  tells  us  (New-England’s  Prospect,  chap,  v.) 
“ the  hornbound  tree  is  a tough  kind  of  wood,  that  requires  so  much  pains  in  riving  as 
is  almost  incredible;  being  the  best  to  make  bowls  and  dishes,  not  being  subject  to 
crack  or  leak.  This  tree  growing  with  broad-spread  arms,  the  vines  twist  their  curl- 
ing branches  about  them;  which  vines  afford  great  store  of  grapes,”  &c.  This  was 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


187 


2.  Of  such  Plants  as  are  proper  to  the  Country. 

To  ripen  any  Impostume  or  Swelling.  For  sore  Mouths.  The 
New-England  standing  Dish. 

Indian  wheat,  of  which  there  is  three  sorts,  — yellow,  red, 
and  blew.  The  blew  is  commonly  ripe  before  the  other,  a 
month.  Five  or  six  grains  of  Indian  wheat  hath  produced, 
in  one  year,  six  hundred.  It  is  hotter  than  our  wheat,  and 
clammy ; excellent  in  cataplasms,  to  ripen  any  swelling  or  im- 
postume. The  decoction  of  the  blew  corn  is  good  to  wash 
sore  mouths  with.  It  is  light  of  digestion ; and  the  English 
make  a kind  of  loblolly  of  it  [53]  to  eat  with  milk,  which 
they  call  sampe.  They  beat  it  in  a morter,  and  sift  the  flower 
out  of  it.  The  remainder  they  call  homminey,  which  they 
put  into  a pot  of  two  or  three  gallons,  with  water,  and  boyl 
it  upon  a gentle  fire  till  it  be  like  a hasty  pudden.  They 
put  of  this  into  milk,  and  so  eat  it.  Their  bread  also  they 
make  of  the  homminey  so  boiled,  and  mix  their -flower  with  it ; 
cast  it  into  a deep  bason,  in  which  they  form  the  loaf ; and 
then  turn  it  out  upon  the  peel,  and  presently  put  it  into  the 
oven  before  it  spreads  abroad.  The  flower  makes  excellent 
puddens.* 2 


our  American  hornbeam  (Carpinus  Americana,  L.).  And  the  same  author  again  alludes 
to  it,  in  verse,  as  — 

“The  horn-bound  tree,  that  to  be  cloven  scorns; 

Which  from  the  tender  vine  oft  takes  his  spouse, 

Who  twines  embracing  arms  about  his  boughs.” 

A pleasant  enough  illustration  of  what  taught  classical  husbandry,  — “ ulmis  adjungere 
vites." — Georg.,  i.  2. 

2 See  also  the  Voyages,  p.  73.  “It  is  almost  incredible,”  says  Higginson  (New- 
England’s  Plantation,  l.  c.,  p.  118),  “what  great  gaine  some  of  our  English  planters 
have  had  by  our  Indian  corne.  Credible  persons  have  assured  me,  — and  the  partie 
himselfe  avouched  the  truth  of  it  to  me,  — that,  of  the  setting  of  thirteen  gallons  of 
corne,  hee  hath  had  encrease  of  it  52  hogsheads;  every  hogshead  holding  seven  bushels, 
of  London  measure:  and  every  bushell  was  by  him  sold  and  trusted  to  the  Indians  for 
so  much  beaver  as  was  worth  18  shillings.  And  so,  of  this  13  gallons  of  corne,  which 
was  worth  6 shillings  8 pence,  he  made  about  327  pounds  of  it  the  yeere  following,  as 
by  reckoning  will  appeare;  where  you  may  see  how  God  blessed  husbandry  in  this 


188 


ARCHJGOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Bastard  Calamus  aromaticus  agrees  with  the  description, 
but  is  not  barren.  They  flower  in  July,  and  grow  in  wet 
places ; as  about  the  brinks  of  ponds.* * 3 

To  keep  the  Feet  ivarm. 

The  English  make  use  of  the  leaves  to  keep  their  feet  warm. 
There  is  a little  beast  called  a muskquash,  that  liveth  in  small 
houses  in  the  ponds,  like  mole-hills,  that  feed  upon  these 
plants.  Their  cods  sent  as  sweet  and  as  strong  as  musk ; and 
will  last  a long  time,  handsomly  wrap’d  up  in  cotton-wool. 
They  are  very  good  to  lay  amongst  cloaths.  May  is  the  best 
[54]  time  to  kill  them ; for  then  their  cods  sent  strongest. 

Wild  leekes,  which  the  Indians  use  much  to  eat  with  their 
fish.4 

A plant  like  knaves’-mustard,  called  New-England  mustard.5 

Mountain-lillies,  bearing  many  yellow  flowers,  turning  up 
their  leaves  like  the  martigon,  or  Turk’s-cap ; spotted  with 
small  spots  as  deep  as  safforn.  They  flower  in  July.6 


land.  There  is  not  such  create  and  plentifull  eaves  of  covne,  I suppose,  any  where  else 

to  bee  found  but  in  this  countrey;  because,  also,  of  varietie  of  colours,  — as  red,  blew, 
and  yellow,  &c.:  and  of  one  come  there  springeth  four  or  five  hundred.”  Roger  Wil- 
liams (Key,  l.  c.,  pp.  208,  221)  has  some  interesting  particulars  of  the  Indian  use  of 
their  corn.  According  to  him,  the  Indian  msicJcquatash  (that  is,  succotash,  as  we  call 
it  now)  was  “boiled  corn  whole,”  and  “ nawsaump,  a kind  of  meal  pottage  unparched. 
From  this  the  English  call  their  samp;  which  is  the  Indian  corn  beaten  and  boiled,  and 
eaten,  hot  or  cold;  with  milk  or  butter, — which  are  mercies  beyond  the  natives’  plain 
water,  and  which  is  a dish  exceeding  wholesome  for  the  English  bodies.” 

3 Acorus  Calamus , L.;  common  to  Europe  and  America.  In  his  Voyages,  p.  77,  the 
author  drops  properly,  in  mentioning  this,  the  injurious  prefix.  It  seems  that  our  New- 
England  forefathers  used  the  leaves  to  cover  their  cold  floors,  as  they  had  used  rushes 
at  home;  and,  according  to  Sir  W.  J.  Hooker  (Br.  FI.,  vol.  i.  p.  159),  the  pleasant  smell 
of  the  plant  has  recommended  it,  in  like  manner,  “ for  strewing  on  the  floor  of  the 
cathedral  at  Norwich,  on  festival  days.” 

4 Allium  Canadense , L.,  probably.  — See  also  p.  55,  note  4. 

6 “Knaves’-mustard  (for  that  it  is  too  bad  for  honest  men).”  — Gerard , p.  262. 
The  “ New-England  mustard,”  which  was  like  it,  may  be  Lepidium  Virginicum,  L. ; 
which,  having  “a  taste  like  common  garden-cress,  or  peppergrass”  (Bigel.,  FI.  Bost., 
in  loco ),  perhaps  attracted  the  first  settlers. 

6 The  “many  flowers,”  with  reflexed  sepals,  perhaps  refer  this  to  our  noble  Ameri- 
can Turk’s-cap  ( Lilium  superbum , L.),  rather  than  to  the  yellow  lily  (L.  Canadense , L.). 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


189 


One-berry,  or  herb  true-love.  See  the  figure.7 

Tobacco.  There  is  not  much  of  it  planted  in  New  Eng- 
land. The  Indians  make  use  of  a small  kind,  with  short,  round 
leaves,  called  joooke .8 

For  Burns  and  Scalds. 

With  a strong  decoction  of  tobacco,  they  cure  burns  and 
scalds  ; boiling  it  in  water  from  a quart  to  a pint,  then  wash 
the  sore  therewith,  and  strew  on  the  powder  of  dryed  to- 
bacco. 


7 See  p.  81. 

8 “ They  take  their  vmttammauog , — that  is,  a weak  tobacco,  — which  the  men 
plant  themselves,  very  frequently.  Yet  I never  see  any  take  so  excessively  as  I have 
seen  men  in  Europe ; and  yet  excess  were  more  tolerable  in  them,  because  they  want 
the  refreshing  of  beer  and  wine,  which  God  had  vouchsafed  Europe.”  — R.  Williams, 
Key,  l.  c.,  p.  213.  And,  in  another  place,  the  same  writer  says  that  tobacco  is  “com- 
monly the  only  plant  which  men  labour  in”  (he  is  speaking  of  the  Indians);  “the 
women  managing  all  the  rest”  (p.  208).  Wood,  in  his  list  of  Indian  words  (New-Eng- 
Prospect,  ad  nit.),  spells  the  Indian  word,  above  given,  otiommaocke,  — (perhaps  both  are 
comparable  with  “ wuttahimneash,  strawberries  ” (Williams,  l.  c.,  p.  220),  and  “ weeti - 
moquat,  it  smells  sweet  ” (Vocab.  of  Narraganset  Lang.,  in  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  v.  p.  S2) ; og, 
ock,  and  ash,  being  all  plural  terminations;  between  which  and  “the  noun  in  the  sin- 
gular one  or  more  consonants  or  vowels  are  frequently  interspersed”  (ibid.,  vol.  iii. 
p.  222,  note);  and  oquat,  from  the  context,  the  verbal;  and  the  root  appearing  possibly 
the  same), — and  also  defines  it  as  tobacco.  There  is  much  other  testimony  that  the 
New-England  savages  were  found  using  “tobacco”  (as  Mourt’s  Relation,  l.  c.,  p.  230; 
and  Winslow’s  Relation,  l.c.,  p.  253);  but  our  author’s  text,  above,  appears  to  distin- 
guish the  true  herb,  “ not  much  planted,”  from  “ a small  kind  called  q woke,"  which 
“ the  Indians  make  use  of.”  And  again,  more  clearly,  in  his  Voyages,  we  have  to  the 
same  effect:  “The  Indians  in  New  England  use  a small,  round-leafed  tobacco,  called 
by  them  or  the  fishermen  poke.  It  is  odious  to  the  English.  ...  Of  marchantable  . . . 
tobacco,  . . . there  is  little  of  it  planted  in  New  England;  neither  have  they”  (both 
clauses  appear  to  refer  to  the  English)  “learned  the  right  way  of  curing  of  it.”  This 
“marchantable  tobacco”  was  no  doubt  mainly  Nicotiana  tabacum,  L.;  but  the  other 
kind,  the  weak  tobacco,”— -cultivated,  as  Williams  tells  us,  by  the  Indians,  and  recog- 
nized as  tobacco  by  the  English,  — was  not,  as  Wood  says  (N.  E.  Prospect,  l.  c. ),  colt’s- 
foot,  but  Nicotiana  ruslica,  L.  (the  yellow  henbane  of  Gerard’s  Herbal,  p.  356),  well 
known  to  have  been  long  in  cultivation  among  the  American  savages,  and  now  a natu- 
ralized relic  of  that  cultivation  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States.  The  name, 
poke,  or  pooke,  — if  it  be,  as  is  supposable,  the  same  with  '■'•puck,  smoke,”  of  the  Nar- 
raganset vocabulary  of  R.  Williams  (Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  v.  p.  84),  — was  perhaps  always 
indefinite,  and,  since  Cutler’s  day,  has  been  applied  in  New  England  to  the  green  hem- 
lock ( Veralrum  viride,  Ait.) ; but  this  was  not,  it  is  evident,  the  poke  of  the  first  settlers. 
The  name  is  also  given  to  Phytolacca  decandra,  L.  (the  skoke  of  Cutler),  and  the  helle- 
bore apparently  distinguished  from  this  as  Indian  poke;  but  the  application  of  the 
name  to  the  former,  at  least,  probably  had  its  origin  among  the  whites. 


190 


ARCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Hollow-leaved  lavendei'  is  a plant  that  grows  in  salt-marshes 
overgrown  with  moss;  with  one  straight  stalk  about  the  big- 
ness of  an  oat-straw,  better  than  a cubit  high.  Upon  the  top 
standeth  one  [55]  fantastical  flower.  The  leaves  grow  close 


from  the  root,  in  shape  like  a tankard;  hollow,  tough,  and 
alwayes  full  of  water.  The  root  is  made  up  of  many  small 
strings,  growing  only  in  the  moss,  and  not  in  the  earth.  The 
whole  plant  comes  to  its  perfection  in  August,  and  then  it 
has  leaves,  stalks,  and  flowers,  as  red  as  blood ; excepting  the 


I 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered.  191 

flower,  which  hath  some  yellow  aclmixt.  I wonder  where 
the  knowledge  of  this  plant  hath  slept  all  this  while  ; i.e., 
above  forty  years. 

For  all  Manner  of  Fluxes. 

It  is  excellent  for  all  manner  of  fluxes. 

Live-for-ever,  a kind  of  cud-weed.9 

Tree-primerose,  taken  by  the  ignorant  for  scabious.* 1 

A solar  plant,  as  some  will  have  it. 

Maiden-hair,  or  Cappellus  veneris  verus,  which  ordinarily  is 
half  a yard  in  height.  The  apothecaries,  for  shame,  now  will 
substitute  wall-rue  no  more  for  maiden-hair,  since  it  grows 
in  abundance  in  New  England,  from  whence  they  may  have 
good  store.2 

9 “ Live-for-ever.  It  is  a kind  of  cud-weed.  ...  It  growes  now  plentifully  in  our 
English  gardens.  . . . The  fishermen,  when  they  want”  (that  is,  lack)  “ tobacco,  take 
this  herb;  being  cut  and  dryed.” — Voyages , p.  78;  where  the  author  adds  the  peculiar 
medicinal  virtues  of  the  plant,  which  are  the  same  as  those  assigned  by  Gerard  (p.  644) 
to  the  genus.  Compare,  as  to  this,  Wood  and  Bache,  Dispens.,  p.  1334.  The  species 
intended  by  Josselyn  is  our  everlasting  ( Antennaria  margaritacea  (L.)  Br.),  described 
by  Gerard,  and  figured  by  Johnson  in  his  edition  of  the  former  (p.  641),  and  first  pub- 
lished by  Clusius  ( Gnaphalium  Americanum,  Rar.  PI.  Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  327)  in  1601. 
Clusius  had  it  from  England,  says  Johnson.  The  dried  herb,  used  by  the  fishermen 
instead  of  tobacco,  and  no  doubt  called  by  them  poke,  may  have  been  mistaken  by 
Wood  for  colt’s-foot,  the  leaves  of  which  were  “smoked  by  the  ancients  in  pulmonary 
complaints;  . . . and,  in  some  parts  of  Germany,  are  at  the  present  time  said  to  be 
substituted  for  tobacco.”  — Wood  and  Bache,  Disj)ens.,  p.  1401.  Cornas  sericea,  L., — 
“ called  by  the  natives  squaw-bush”  (Williamson’s  Hist.  Maine,  vol.  i.  p.  125),  and  by 
the  western  Indians  kinnikinnik  (Gray,  Man.,  p.  161);  furnished,  in  its  inner  bark  (on 
the  medicinal  properties  of  which,  see  especially  Rees’s  Cycl.,  Amer.  ed.,  in  loco),  a sub- 
stitute for  Nicotiana,  — very  widely  approved  among  the  native  Americans.  The 
name,  Indian  tobacco,  given  to  Lobelia  inflata,  L.  (the  emetic-weed  of  Cutler,  l.  c., 
p.  484;  who  “first  attracted  to  it  the  attention  of  the  profession”),  by  the  whites,  is 
in  some  connections  confusing,  and  might  well  be  displaced  by  wild  tobacco,  which 
is  also  in  popular  use. 

1 CEnotliera  biennis,  L.  (Johnson’s  Gerard,  p.  475),  — known  to  Europeans,  accord- 
ing to  Linnaeus  (Sp.  PI.,  p.  493),  as  early  as  1614;  but  first  described  and  figured  by 
Prosper  Alpinus,  in  his  posthumous  De  PL  Exoticis,  p.  325,  t.  324,  cit.  L.  Johnson 
says  that  Parkinson  gave  it  the  English  name  of  tree-primrose,  which  it  still  keeps.  It 
is  “vulgarly  known  by  the  name  of  scabish  (a  corruption,  probably,  of  scabious)”  in 
the  country. — Bigel.  FI.  Bost.,  in  loco.  Josselyn  describes  the  plant  in  his  Voyages,  p.  78. 

2 Adiantum  pedatum,  L.  — The  European  A.  Capillus  veneris,  L.,  long  used  as  a 
pectoral  (the  sirop  de  capillaire  of  French  shops  being  made  of  it),  is,  according  to 
Messrs.  Wood  and  Bache  (Dispens.,  p.  1290),  “feebler”  than  our  species,  which  Josse- 
lyn recommends. 


192 


ARCHA30L0GIA  AMERICANA. 


Pirola,  two  kinds  (see  the  figures) ; both  of  them  excellent 
wound-herbs.8 

Homer’s  Molley.* 4 

[56]  Lysimachus,  or  loose-strife.  It  grows  in  dry  grounds 
in  the  open  sun,  four  foot  high  ; flowers  from  the  middle  of 
the  plant  to  the  top  ; the  flowers  purple,  standing  upon  a 
small  sheath,  or  cod,  which,  when  it  is  ripe,  breaks,  and  puts 
forth  a white  silken  doun.  The  stalk  is  red,  and  as  big  as 
one’s  finger.5 

Mary  gold  of  Peru,  of  which  there  are  two  kinds,  — one 
bearing  black  seeds  ; the  other  black  and  white  streak’d. 
This  beareth  the  fairest  flowers,  — commonly  but  one,  — upon 
the  very  top  of  the  stalk.6 

Treacle-berries  (see,  before,  Salomon’s  seal). 

Oak  of  Idierusalem  (see  before). 

Oak  of  Cappadocia  (see  before). 

Earth-nuts,  differing  much  from  those  in  England.  One 
sort  of  them  bears  a most  beautiful  flower.7 8 

For  the  Scurvy  and  Drojosie. 

Sea-tears.  They  grow  upon  the  sea-banks  in  abundance. 
They  are  good  for  the  scurvy  and  dropsie  ; boiled  and  eaten 
as  a sallade,  and  the  broth  drunk  with  it.8 


* See  pp.  67,  68. 

4 Johnson’s  Gerard,  p.  183:  which  is  perhaps  Allium  magicum,  L.;  for  which  our 
A.  tricoccum,  Ait.,  may  have  been  mistaken.  — See  also  p.  54  of  this;  note. 

5 Epilobium  angustifolium,  L.  (rosebay  willow-herbe  of  Gerard  by  Johnson);  which 
last  figures  it  at  p.  477:  common  to  Europe  and  America;  but  some  botanists  have, 
like  Josseiyn,  reckoned  the  American  plant  “ proper  to  the  country-.” 

6 Eelianthus,  L.  (Gerard,  p.  751),  a genus  peculiar  to  America;  called  “American 
marygold”  in  the  Voy-ages  (p.  59),  where  it  is  set  down  among  the  more  striking  of  our 
New-England  flowers.  At  p.  82  of  this  book,  the  author  gives  a cut  of  the  “ marygold 
of  America,”  which  he  describes.  It  is  probably  the  second  one  above  mentioned,  and 
perhaps  H.  strumosus,  L.,  Gray.  The  other  kind,  with  “black  seeds,”  was  probably 
H,  divaricatus,  L. 

7 See  p.  47.  The  earth-nuts  of  Gerard  (p.  1064)  are  species  of  Bulbocastanum  of 
authors. 

8 Not  clear  to  me.  But,  taking  the  alleged  virtues  and  the  station  into  account,  our 
author  may  mean  here  the  rather  striking  American  sea-rocket  ( Cakile  Americana, 
Nutt.);  which,  it  is  likely,  occurred  to  him.  Spurge-time  (p.  43)  also  grows  on  “sea- 
banks.” 


NEW-ENGLAWS  RARITIES  DISCOVERED. 


193 


Indian  Beans , better  for  Physick-TJse  than  other  Beans. 

Indian  beans,  falsly  called  French  beans,  are  better  for 
physick  and  chyrurgery  [57]  than  our  garden-beans.  Pro- 
bat um  est? 

Squashes,  but  more  truly  squontersquashes ; a kind  of  mel- 
lon,  or  rather  gourd  ; for  they  oftentimes  degenerate  into 
gourds.  Some  of  these  are  green;  some  yellow;  some  long- 
ish,  like  a gourd ; others  round,  like  an  apple  : all  of  them 
pleasant  food,  boyled  and  buttered,  and  season’d  with  spice. 
But  the  yellow  squash  — called  an  apple-squash  (because  like 
an  apple),  and  about  the  bigness  of  a pome-water  — is  the 
best  kind.* 1  They  are  much  eaten  by  the  Indians  and  Eng- 
lish ; yet  they  breed  the  small  white  worms  (which  physi- 
tians  call  ascarides)  in  the  long  gut,  that  vex  the  fundament 
with  a perpetual  itching,  and  a desire  to  go  to  stool. 

Water-mellon.  It  is  a large  fruit,  but  nothing  near  so  big 
as  a pompion ; colour  smoother,  and  of  a sad  grass-green ; 


9 “French  beans;  or,  rather,  American  beans.  The  herbalists  call  them  kidney- 
beans,  from  their  shape  and  effects;  for  they  strengthen  the  kidneys.  They  are  varie- 
gated much, — some  being  bigger,  a great  deal,  than  others;  some  white,  black,  red, 
yellow,  blue,  spotted : besides  your  Bonivis,  and  Calavances,  and  the  kidney-bean  that 
is  proper  to  Ronoake.  But  these  are  brought  into  the  country:  the  other  are  natural 
to  the  climate.” — Josselyn's  Voyages , p.  73-4.  R.  Williams  (Key,  l.  c.,  p.  208)  gives 
manusquussedash  as  the  Indian  word  for  beans.  Cornuti  (whose  book,  indeed,  is  not 
confined  to  Canadian  plants;  though, on  the  other  hand,  he  was  sometimes  ill  informed 
of  the  true  locality  of  his  specimens;  as  in  the  case  of  Asclepias  Cornuti,  Decsne,  which 
he  published  as  A.  Syriaca)  figures  and  describes,  at  pp.  184-5,  Phaseolus  mxdtiflorus, 
L.;  and  this  may  possibly  have  been  raised  from  seeds  procured  by  French  missiona- 
ries from  the  Canadian  savages:  but  P.  vulgaris , L.,  our  well-known  bush-bean,  is 
doubtless  what  Josselyn  has  mainly  in  view,  as  cultivated  by  the  native  Americans. 

1 “ Askutasquash,  — their  vine-apples,  — which  the  English,  from  them,  call 
squashes:  about  the  bigness  of  apples  of  several  colours.”  — R.  Williams,  Key,  §c., 
1.  c.,  p.  222.  “ In  summer,  when  their  corn  is  spent,  isquotersquaslies  is  their  best 
bread;  a fruit  much  like  a pumpion.”  — Wood,  New-Eng.  Prospect,  part  2,  chap.  vi. 
The  late  Dr.  T.  W.  Harris  made  the  ill-understood  edible  gourds  a special  object  of 
study,  and  devoted  particular  attention  to  the  ascertaining  of  the  kinds  cultivated  by 
the  American  savages;  but  his  papers  have  not  as  yet  seen  the  light.  The  warted 
squash  ( Cucurbita  verrucosa , L.)  and  the  orange-gourd  ( C.  aurantium,  Willd.)  — the  fruit 
of  which  last  is  of  the  size  and  color  of  an  orange,  and  “ more  tender  than  the  common 
pompion”  (Loudon,  Encycl.  PI.)  — are  perhaps,  in  part,  intended  by  our  author. 

25 


194 


ARCH2E0L0GIA  AMERICANA. 


rounder,  or,  more  rightly,  sap-green ; with  some  yellowness 
achnixt  when  ripe.  The  seeds  are  black;  the  flesh,  or  pulpe, 
exceeding  juicy.2 3 * * * * 

For  Heat  and  Thirst  in  Feavers. 

It  is  often  given  to  those  sick  of  feavers,  and  other  hot  dis- 
eases, with  good  success. 

[58]  New-England  daysie,  or  primrose,  is  the  second  kind 
of  navel-wort  in  Johnson  upon  Gerard.  It  flowers  in  May, 
and  grows  amongst  moss  upon  hilly  grounds  and  rocks  that 
are  shady.8 

For  Burns  and  Scalds. 

It  is  very  good  for  burns  and  scalds. 


2 “ Pompions  and  water-mellons,  too,  they  have  good  store,”  says  our  author 
(Voyages,  p.  130);  and  again,  at  p.  74  of  the  same,  “The  water-melon  is  proper  to  the 
countrie.  The  flesh  of  it  is  of  a flesh-colour;  a rare  cooler  of  feavers,  and  excellent 
against  the  stone.”  The  water-melon  ( Cucurbita  citrullus,  L.)  is  “the  only  medecine 
the  common  people  use  in  ardent  fevers,”  in  Egypt  (Loudon,  l.  c.).  Cucurbita  pepo,  L. 
(Gr.  nenuv ; Low  Dutch,  pepoen,  pompoen;  Fr.,  pompone ),  is  our  English  pompion,  or 
pumpkin.  At  p.  91,  Josselyn  speaks  of  pompions  “proper  to  the  country.”  Compare 
Gerard’s  chapter  “of  melons, or  pompions”  (Johnson’s  Gerard,  p.  918),  where  are  two 
Virginian  sorts ; and  see  “ the  ancient  New-England  standing  dish,”  at  p.  91  of  this  book. 
The  evidence  appears  to  be  sufficient,  that  our  savages  had  in  cultivation,  together 
with  their  corn  and  tobacco,  — and,  like  these,  derived  originally  from  tropical  regions, 
— several  sorts  of  what  we  call  squashes,  some  kinds  of  pompion,  and  also  water- 
melons; and,  Graves’s  letter  (New-England  Plantation,  l.  e.,  p.  124)  adds,  musk-melons. 
See  further,  especially,  Champlain  (Voy.  de  la  Nouv.  France,  passim ) and  L’Escarbot 
(Hist,  de  la  Nouv.  France,  vol.  ii.  p.  836).  Mr.  A.  De  Candolle  (Geogr.  Bot.,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  899,  904)  disputes  the  American  origin  of  the  edible  gourds,  hut  does  not  appear  to 
have  examined  all  the  early  authorities  for  their  cultivation  by  the  savages  before  the 
settlement  of  this  country.  Such  cultivation  appears  to  be  made  out,  and  to  indicate 
that  these  vegetables  have  probably  been  known,  from  very  remote  antiquity,  in  the 
warmer  parts  of  America.  But  this  does  not  touch  the  difficult  question  of  origin;  and 
it  may  still  appear  that  the  gourds  are  equally  ancient  in  Europe,  and  derived,  both 
here  and  there,  from  Asia  (De  Cand.,  1.  c.);  such  derivation  being  explainable,  in  the 
case  of  America,  by  old  migrations  from  Asia  through  Polynesia.  — Pickering,  Paces  of 
Man,  chap.  17. 

3 Johnson’s  Gerard,  p.  528;  where  the  same  plant  is  also  called  “jagged  or  rose 

penniwoort,”  and  is  probably  what  our  author  intends  at  p.  43  of  this.  It  was  no  doubt 

our  pretty  Saxifraga  Virginiensis,  Michx.,  which  Josselyn  had  in  view.  In  his  Voy- 

ages, p.  80,  he  assigns  to  it  the  medicinal  virtues  which  Gerard  attributes  to  the  great 

navel-wort,  or  wall-pennywort  ( Cotyledon  umbilicus,  Iluds.) 


NEW-ENGLAND’S  EABITIES  DISCOYEEED. 


195 


Ail  Achariston,  or  Medicine  deserving  Thanks. 

An  Indian,  whose  thumb  was  swell’d  and  very  much  in- 
flamed, and  full  of  pain,  increasing  and  creeping  along  to 
the  wrist ; with  little  black  spots  under  the  thumb,  against  the 
nail : I cured  it  with  this  Umbilicus  veneris  (root  and  all),  the 
yolk  of  an  egg,  and  wheat-flower  (f.  cataplasme). 

Briony  of  Peru  (we  call  it,  though  its  grown  hear) ; or, 
rather,  scammony.  Some  take  it  for  mechoacan.  The  green 
juice  is  absolutely  poyson  ; yet  the  root,  when  dry,  may  safely 
be  given  to  strong  bodies.4 

Bed  and  black  currence  (see  before). 

Wild  damask  roses,  single,  but  very  large  and  sweet,  but 
stiptick.5 

Sweet  fern.6  The  roots  run  one  within  another,  like  a net ; 
being  very  long,  and  spreading  abroad  under  the  upper  crust 
of  [59]  the  earth : sweet  in  taste,  but  withal  astringent. 
Much  hunted  after  by  our  swine.  The  Scotchmen  that  are  in 
New  England  have  told  me  that  it  grows  in  Scotland. 

For  Fluxes. 

The  people  boyl  the  tender  tops  in  molosses-beer,  and  in 
possets  for  fluxes ; for  which  it  is  excellent. 


4 Convolvulus  sepium,  L.  (great  bind-weed)  is  exceedingly  like  to  C.  Scammonia , L., 
the  inspissated  juice  of  which  is  the  officinal  scammony;  and  is  common  to  Europe 
and  North  America.  Gerard’s  bryony  of  Peru  (p.  872-3),  to  which  Josselyn  refers,  is, 
whatever  it  be,  not  found  here.  Compare  Cutler’s  remarks  on  C.  sepium  (Account  of 
Veg.,  &e.,  1.  c.,  p.  416).  Mechoacan , “called  . . . Indian  briony,  or  briony,  or  scam- 
mony of  America,”  from  the  Caribbee  Islands,  &c.,  is  described  in  Hughes,  Amer. 
Physitian  (1672),  p.  94;  and  see  Wood  and  Bache,  Dispens.,  p.  424,  note. 

5 Rosa  Carolina , L.  (Carolina  rose),  probably.  — See  Cutler’s  observations,  l.  c., 
p.  451.  Higginson  also  notices  “ single  damaske  roses,  verie  sweete.”  — New-Eng. 
Plantation,  l.  c.,  p.  119.  Our  Carolina  rose  is  said  to  be  common  in  English  shrub- 
beries. 

6 See  also  Voyages,  p.  72.  Our  author  is  the  earliest  authority  that  I have  met 
with  for  this  name ; and  his  plant,  which  is  placed  among  those  “ proper  to  the  coun- 
try,” may  very  well  be  what  has  long  been  called  sweet-fern  in  New  England,  — Comp- 
tonia  asplenifolia  (L.)  Ait.;  still  used  in  “molasses  beer,”  and  medicinal  in  the  way 
mentioned.  — Emerson , Trees  and  Shrubs  of  Mass.,  p.  226. 


196 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Sarsaparilia,  a plant  not  yet  sufficiently  known  by  the  Eng- 
lish. Some  say  it  is  a kind  of  bind-weed.  We  have,  in  New 
England,  two  plants  that  go  under  the  name  of  sarsaparilia : 
the  one,  not  above  a foot  in  height,  without  thorns  ; the  other 
having  the  same  leaf,  but  is  a shrub  as  high  as  a gooseberry- 
bush,  and  full  of  sharp  thorns.  This  I esteem  as  the  right, 
by  the  shape  and  savour  of  the  roots ; but  rather  by  the 
effects  answerable  to  that  we  have  from  other  parts  of  the 
world.  It  groweth  upon  dry,  sandy  banks'  by  the  sea-side ; 
and  upon  the  banks  of  rivers,  so  far  as  the  salt  water  flows ; 
and  within  land  up  in  the  country,  as  some  have  reported.7 

Bill-berries,  two  kinds;  — black,  and  sky-coloured,  which  is 
more  frequent.8 

[60]  To  cool  the  Heat  of  Feavers,  and  quench  Thirst. 

They  are  very  good  to  allay  the  burning  heat  of  feavers 
and  hot  agues,  either  in  syrup  or  conserve. 

A most  excellent  Summer  Dish. 

They  usually  eat  of  them,  put  into  a bason,  with  milk,  and 
sweetned  a little  more  Avith  sugar  and  spice ; or  for  cold 


7 See  Josselyn’s  Voyages,  p.  77.  The  first  of  the  two  plants  which  the  author 
mentions  here  is  probably  Aralia  nudicaulis,  L.  (wild  sarsaparilla);  and  the  other, 
A.  hispida,  Michx.  The  last,  which  is  what  is  spoken  of  in  the  Voyages,  has  beeh 
recommended  for  medicinal  properties  by  Prof.  Peck.  — Wood  and  Bache,  Dispens., 

p.  116. 

8 “ Atiitaash  (whortleberries),  of  which  there  are  divers  sorts;  sweet,  like  currants; 
some  opening,  some  of  a binding  nature.  Sautaash  are  these  currants  dried  by  the 
natives,  and  so  preserved  all  the  year;  which  they  beat  to  powder,  and  mingle  it  with 
their  parched  meal,  and  make  a delicate  dish  which  they  call  sautauthig , which  is  as 
sweet  to  them  as  plum  or  spice  cake  to  the  English.”  — R.  Williams , Key,  §c.,  1.  c., 
p.  221.  The  fruitful  and  wholesome  American  whortleberries,  or  bilberries,  were,  it  is 
likely,  a very  pleasant  discovery  to  our  forefathers.  It  was,  no  doubt,  those  species 
that  we  call  blueberries  which  they  made  most  of,  and  particularly  the  low  blueberry 
(Vaccinium  Pennsylvanicum,  Lam.)  and  the  swamp-blueberry  ( V.  corymbosum,  L.). 
Prom  these  the  common  black  whortleberry  ( Gaylussacia  resinosa,  Torr.  and  Gray)  dif- 
fers no  less  in  quality  than  in  structure.  SaHe  (compare  sautaasli , above),  in  Rasies 
Diet,  of  the  Abnaki  Language,  l.  c.,  p.  450,  is  rendered  “ frais , sans  etre  secs;  lorsq'ils 
s't  secs,  silcisa‘tar .” 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


197 


stomachs,  in  sack.  The  Indians  dry  them  in  the  sun,  and  sell 
them  to  the  English  by  the  bushell ; who  make  use  of  them 
instead  of  currence,  — putting  of  them  into  puddens,  both 
boyled  and  baked,  and  into  water-gruel. 

Knot-berry,  or  clowde-berry  ; seldom  ripe.9 

Sumach,  differing  from  all  that  I did  ever  see  in  the  her- 
balists. Our  English  cattle  devour  it  most  abominably, 
leaving  neither  leaf  nor  branch  ; yet  it  sprouts  again  next 
spring.* 1 

For  Colds. 

The  English  use  to  boyl  it  in  beer,  and  drink  it  for  colds ; 
and  so  do  the  Indians,  from  whom  the  English  had  the  medi- 
cine. 

Wild  cherry.  They  grow  in  clusters,  like  [61]  grapes;  of 
the  same  bigness  ; blackish-red,  when  ripe  ; and  of  a harsh 
taste.2 

For  Fluxes. 

They  are  also  good  for  fluxes. 

Transplanted  and  manured,  they  grow  exceeding  fair. 


9 The  cloud-berry  — Rubus  chamcemorus , L.  (Gerard,  p.  1420)  — is  found  in  some 
parts  of  the  subalpine  region  of  the  White  Mountains;  and  Mr.  Oakes  detected  it  at 
Lubec,  on  the  coast  of  Maine.  It  is  common  to  both  continents ; and  perhaps,  there- 
fore, as  our  author  gives  his  cloud-berry  a place  in  this  division  of  his  book,  he  may 
have  meant  something  else. 

1 Rhus,  L.;  the  species  differing,  as  our  author  repeats  in  his  Voyages  (p.  71),  “from 
all  the  kinds  set  down  in  our  English  herbals.”  Wood  (N.  Eng.  Prospect,  chap,  v.) 
calls  it  “ the  dear  shumach.”  Josselyn’s  account  of  the  virtues  of  our  species,  here, 
and  especially  in  the  Voyages  (l.  c.),  agrees  so  well  with  what  Gerard  says  of  the  pro- 
perties of  the  European  tanner’s  sumach  (R.  coriavia,  L. ),  that  the  latter  may  very 
likely  have,  in  part,  suggested  the  former.  But  see  Cutler,  (.  c.,  p.  427. 

2 “ The  cherry-trees  yield  great  store  of  cherries,  which  grow  on  clusters  like 
grapes.  They  be  much  smaller  than  our  English  cherry;  nothing  near  so  good,  if  they 
be  not  fully  ripe.  They  so  furr  the  mouth,  that  the  tongue  will  cleave  to  the  roof,  and 
the  throat  wax  hoarse  with  swallowing  those  red  bullies  (as  I may  call  them);  being 
little  better  in  taste  ” (that  is,  than  buRaces).  “ English  ordering  may  bring  them  to 
an  English  cherry;  but  they  are  as  wild  as  the  Indians.”  — New- England' s Prospect, 
chap.  v.  The  choke-cherry  ( Cerasus  Virginiana  (L.)  DC.)  and  the  wild  cherry  (C. 
serolina  (Ehrh.)  DC.)  are  meant. 


198 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Board-pine  is  a very  large  tree,  two  or  three  fadom  about.3 


For  Wounds. 


It  yields  a very  soveraign  turpentine  for  the  curing  of  des- 
perate wounds. 


For  Stabbs. 


The  Indians  make  use  of  the  moss,  boiled  in  spring  water, 
for  stabbs;  pouring  in  the  liquor,  and  applying  the  boiled 
moss,  well  stamp’d  or  beaten  betwixt  two  stones. 


For  Burning  and  Scalding. 

And,  for  burning  and  scalding,  they  first  take  out  the  fire 
with  a strong  decoction  of  alder-bark ; then  they  lay  upon  it 
a playster  of  the  bark  of  board-pine,  first  boyled  tender,  and 
beat  to  a playster  betwixt  two  stones. 

I 

To  take  Fire  out  of  a Burn. 

One  Christopher  Luxe,  a fisherman,  having  burnt  his  knee- 
pan,  was  healed  [62]  again  by  an  Indian  webb,  or  wife  (for 
so  they  call  those  women  that  have  husbands).  She  first 
made  a strong  decoction  of  alder-bark,  witli  which  she  took 
out  the  fire  by  imbrocation,  or  letting  of  it  drop  upon  the 
sore,  which  would  smoak  notably  with  it.  Then  she  plays- 
tered  it  with  the  bark  of  board-pine  or  hemlock-tree,  boyled 
soft,  and  stampt  betwixt  two  stones  till  it  was  as  thin  as 
brown  paper,  and  of  the  same  colour.  She  annointed  the 
playster  with  soyles  oyl,  and  the  sore  likewise ; then  she  laid 
it  on  warm;  and  sometimes  she  made  use  of  the  bark  of  the 
larch-tree. 


8 Pinus  Slrobus,  L.  (white  pine).  “ Of  the  body  the  English  make  large  canows  of 
20  foot  long,  and  two  foot  and  a half  over;  hollowing  of  them  with  an  adds,  and  shaping 
of  the  outside  like  a boat.” — Josselyn's  Voyages , p.  64;  where  is  more  concerning  the 
use  of  this  tree  in  medicine.  “I  have  seen,”  says  Wood,  “of  these  stately,  high-grown 
trees,  ten  miles  together,  close  by  the  river-side ; from  whence,  by  shipping,  they  might 
be  conveyed  to  any  desired  port.”  — Neus-Eng.  P rospect,  chap.  v. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


199 


To  eat  out  proud  Flesh  in  a Sore. 

And,  to  eat  out  the  proud  flesh,  they  take  a kind  of  earth- 
nut,  boyled  and  stamped ; and,  last  of  all,  they  apply  to  the 
sore  the  roots  of  water-lillies,  boiled  and  stamped  betwixt 
two  stones  to  a playster. 

For  Stitches. 

The  firr-tree,  or  pitch-tree.4  The  tar  that  is  made  of  all 
sorts  of  pitch-wood  is  an  excellent  thing  to  take  away  those 
desperate  stitches  of  the  sides  which  perpetually  afflicteth 
those  poor  people  that  are  [63]  sti'icken  with  the  plague  of 
the  back. 

Note.  — You  must  make  a large  toast,  or  cake,  slit  and  dip 
it  in  the  tar,  and  bind  it  warm  to  the  side. 

The  most  common  Diseases  in  New  England. 

The  black-pox,  the  spotted-feaver,  the  griping  of  the  guts, 
the  dropsie,  and  the  sciatica,  are  the  killing  diseases  in  New 
England. 

The  larch-tree,  which  is  the  only  tree  of  all  the  pines  that 
sheds  his  leaves  before  winter ; the  other  remaining  green  all 
the  year.  This  is  the  tree  from  which  we  gather  that  useful 
purging  excrense,  agarick.5 


4 Abies  balsamea  (L.)  Marsh,  (balsam-fir).  “The  firr-tree  is  a large  tree,  too;  but 
seldom  so  big  as  the  pine.  The  bark  is  smooth,  with  knobs,  or  blisters,  in  which  lyeth 
clear  liquid  turpentine,  — very  good  to  be  put  into  salves  and  oyntments.  The  leaves, 
or  cones,  boiled  in  beer,  are  good  for  the  sourvie.  The  young  buds  are  excellent  to  put 
into  epithemes  for  warts  and  corns.  The  rosen  is  altogether  as  good  as  frankincense. 
. . . The  knots  of  this  tree  and  fat-pine  are  used  by  the  English  instead  of  candles ; 
and  it  will  burn  a long  time : but  it  makes  the  people  pale  ” (Josselyn’s  Voyages,  p.  66) ; 
besides  being,  as  Wood  says  {l.  c.,  speaking  of  the  pine),  “something  sluttish.”  But 
Higginson  says  they  “ are  very  usefull  in  a house,  and  . . . burne  as  cleere  as  a torch.” 
— New-Eng.  Plantation , l.  c.,  p.  122. 

5 Larix Americana,  Michx.  (Larch;  “ taccamahac,”  Cutler;  tamarack;  hackmatack.) 
“ Groundsels,  made  of  larch-tree,  will  never  rot;  and  the  longer  it  lyes,  the  harder  it 
growes,  that  you  may  almost  drive  a nail  into  a bar  of  iron  as  easily  as  into  that.”  — 
Josselyn's  Voyages , p.  68.  “ The  turpentine  that  issueth  from  the  cones  of  the  larch-tree 
(which  comes  nearest  of  any  to  the  right  turpentine)  is  singularly  good  to  heal  wounds, 


200 


ARCHyEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


For  Wounds  and  Cuts. 

The  leaves  and  gum  are  both  very  good  to  heal  wounds 
and  cuts. 

For  Wounds  with  Bruises. 

I cured  once  a desperate  bruise  with  a cut  upon  the  knee- 
pan,  with  an  ungent  made  with  the  leaves  of  the  larch-tree, 
and  hog’s  grease  ; but  the  gum  is  best. 

Spruce  is  a goodly  tree ; of  which  they  make  masts  for 
ships,  and  sail-yards.  It  is  generally  conceived,  by  those  that 
have  [64]  skill  in  building  of  ships,  that  here  is  absolutely 
the  best  trees  in  the  world ; many  of  them  being  three  fathom 
about,  and  of  great  length.0 

An  Achariston  for  the  Scurvy. 

The  tops  of  green  spruce-boughs,  boiled  in  bear,  and  drunk, 
is  assuredly  one  of  the  best  remedies  for  the  scurvy ; restor- 
ing the  infected  party  in  a short  time.  They  also  make  a 
lotion  of  some  of  the  decoction ; adding  honey  and  allum. 

Hemlock-tree,  a kind  of  spruce.  The  bark  of  this  tree 
serves  to  dye  tawny.  The  fishers  tan  their  sails  and  nets 
with  it.* * 6 7 


and  to  draw  out  the  malice  (or  thorn,  as  Helmont  phrases  it)  of  any  ach;  rubbing  the 

place  therewith,  and  throwing  upon  it  the  powder  of  sage-leaves.”  — Ibid.,  p.  66. 

6 Abies  nigra,  Poir.  (black  or  double  spruce),  and  probably  also  A.  alba,  Michx. 
(white  or  single  spruce).  At  Pascataway  there  is  now  a spruce-tree,  brought  down  to 
the  water-side  by  our  mass-men,  of  an  incredible  bigness,  and  so  long  that  no  skipper 
durst  ever  yet  adventure  to  ship  it;  but  there  it  lyes  and  rots.” — Josselyn's  Voyages, 
p.  67. 

7 Abies  Canadensis  (L.),  Michx.  (hemlock  spruce).  Beside  the  coniferous  trees  here 
set  down,  our  author  mentions  in  his  Voyages  (p.  67)  “the  white  cedar,  ...  a stately 
tree,  and  is  taken  by  some  to  be  tamarisk.”  This,  which  is  probably  our  white  cedar 
(Cupressus  thyvides , L.),  he  says  “the  English  saw  into  boards  to  floor  their  rooms;  for 
which  purpose  it  is  excellent,  long-lasting,  and  wears  very  smooth  and  white.  Like- 
wise they  make  shingles  to  cover  their  houses  with,  instead  of  tyle.  It  will  never 
warp.”  Wood  (New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap,  v.)  makes  mention  of  a “cedar-tree,  . . . 
a tree  of  no  great  growth;  not  bearing  above  a foot  and  a half,  at  the  most;  neither  is 
it  very  high.  . . . This  wood  is  more  desired  for  ornament  than  substance;  being  of 
colour  red  and  white,  like  eugh;  smelling  as  sweet  as  juniper.  It  is  commonly  used 
for  ceiling  of  houses,  and  making  of  chests,  boxes,  and  staves.”  This  seems  likely  to 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


201 


To  break  Sore  or  Swelling. 

The  Indians  break  and  heal  their  swellings  and  sores  with 
it ; boyling  the  inner  bark  of  young  hemlock  very  well ; then 
knocking  of  it  betwixt  two  stones  to  a playster ; and,  annoint- 
ing  or  soaking  it  in  soyls’  oyl,  they  apply  it  to  the  sore.  It 
will  break  a sore  swelling  speedily. 

One-berry,  ITerba  Paris , or  true-love.* * * 8 

Sassafras,  or  ague-tree.9 

[65]  For  Heat  in  Feavers. 

The  chips  of  the  root,  boyled  in  beer,  is  excellent  to  allay 
the  hot  rage  of  feavers ; being  drunk. 

For  Bruises  and  dry  Blowes. 

The  leaves  of  the  same  tree  are  very  good,  made  into  an 
oyntment,  for  bruises  and  dry  blows.  The  bark  of  the  root 
we  use  instead  of  cinamon ; and  it  is  sold  at  the  Barbadoes 
for  two  shillings  the  pound. 

And  why  may  not  this  be  the  bark  the  Jesuit’s  powder  was 
made  of,  that  was  so  famous,  not  long  since,  in  England,  for 
agues  ? 

Cranberry,  or  bearberry  (because  bears  use  much  to  feed 
upon  them),  is  a small,  trayling  plant,  that  grows  in  salt- 
marshes  that  are  overgrown  with  moss.  The  tender  branches, 
which  are  reddish,  run  out  in  great  length,  lying  flat  on  the 
ground ; where,  at  distances,  they  take  root,  overspreading 
sometimes  half  a score  acres,  sometimes  in  small  patches  of 


have  been  the  American  Arbor  vile e ( Thya  occidentalis,  L.);  also  called  white-cedar. — 

Compare  Emerson,  Trees  and  Shrubs  of  Mass.,  pp.  96,  100.  For  mention  of  the  juni- 

per, see  ante,  p.  49. 

8 See  p.  81;  and  ante,  p.  54. 

9 Sassafras  officinale,  Nees.  “ This  tree  growes  not  beyond  Black  Point,  eastward.” 
— Josselyn's  Voyages , p.  68.  Michaux  (Sylva,  vol.  ii.  p.  144)  says,  “ The  neighbourhood 
of  Portsmouth  . . . may  be  assumed  as  one  of  the  extreme  points  at  which  it  is  found 
towards  the  north-east;”  but,  according  to  Mr.  Emerson  (Trees  and  Shrubs  of  Mass., 
p.  322),  it  is  “ found  as  far  north  as  Canada,”  though  ..."  there  a small  tree.” 

26 


202 


ARCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA, 


about  a rood  or  the  like.  The  leaves  are  like  box,  but  greener, 

— thick  and  glistering.  The  blossoms  are  very  like  the 
flowers  of  [66]  our  English  night-shade  ; after  which  succeed 
the  berries,  hanging  by  long,  small  foot-stalks,  no  bigger  than 
a hair.  At  first,  they  are  of  a pale-yellow  colour ; afterwards 
red,  and  as  big  as  a cherry  : some  perfectly  round,  others 
oval ; all  of  them  hollow ; of  a sower,  astringent  taste.  They 
are  ripe  in  August  and  September.1 

For  the  Scurvy. 

They  are  excellent  against  the  scurvy. 

For  the  Heat  in  Feavers. 

They  are  also  good  to  allay  the  fervour  of  hot  diseases. 

The  Indians  and  English  use  them  much,  boyling  them 
with  sugar  for  sauce  to  eat  with  their  meat ; and  it  is  a deli- 
cate sauce,  especially  for  roasted  mutton.  Some  make  tarts 
with  them  as  with  gooseberries. 

Vine,  much  differing  in  the  fruit ; all  of  them  very  fleshy : 
some  reasonably  pleasant ; others  have  a taste  of  gunpowder, 

— and  these  grow  in  swamps,  and  low,  wet  grounds.2 


1 Vaccinium  macrocarpum , Ait.  Our  author  seems  not  to  have  known  the  European 
cranberry  ( V.  oxycoccus,  L.,  the  marish-wortes,  or  fenne-berries,  of  Gerard,  p.  1419); 
which  is  also  found  in  our  cold  bogs,  especially  upon  mountains.  This  is  called  by 
Sir  W.  J.  Hooker  (Br.  FI.,  vol.  i.  p.  178),  “ far  superior  to  the  foreign  V.  macrocarpori ; ” 
but,  from  Gerard’s  account,  it  should  appear  that  it  was  formerly  much  less  thought 
of  in  England  than  was  ours  (according  to  Josselyn)  here,  by  both  Indians  and  English. 
Linnaeus  speaks  of  the  European  fruit  in  much  the  same  way,  in  1737,  in  his  Flora  of 
Lapland,  where  he  says,  “ Baccae  hoe  a Lapponibus  in  usum  cibarium  non  vocantw , nec 
facile  ah  aliis  nationibus,  cum  nimis  acidce  sint"  (FI.  Lapp.,  p.  145):  but  corrects  this  in 
a paper  on  the  esculent  plants  of  Sweden,  in  1752;  asking,  not  without  animation, 
“ Harum  vero  cum  saccharo  jn-ceparata  gelalina , quid  in  mensis  noslris  jucwndius  ? ” 
(Amaen.  Acad.,  t.  iii.  p.  86.)  Our  American  cranberry  was  probably  the  “ sasemineash 
— another  sharp,  cooling  fruit,  growing  in  fresh  waters  all  the  winter;  excellent  in  con- 
serve against  fevers  ” — of  R.  Williams,  Key,  l.  c.,  p.  221.  — Compare  Masimin,  rendered 
[fruits]  “ rouges  petits."  — Rasies'  Diet.,  Abnaki,  l.  c.,  p.  460. 

2 Wood  says  the  “ vines  afford  great  store  of  grapes,  which  are  very  big,  both  for 
the  grape  and  cluster;  sweet  and  good.  These  be  of  two  sorts,  — red  and  white.  There 
is  likewise  a smaller  kind  of  grape  which  groweth  in  the  islands”  (that  is,  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay),  “ which  is  sooner  ripe,  and  more  delectable:  so  that  there  is  no  known 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


203 


[67]  3.  Of  such  Plants  as  are  'proper  to  the  Country , and  have 

no  Name. 

(10 

Pirola,  or  winter-green.  That  kind  which  grows  with  us 
in  England  is  common  in  New  England.3  But  there  is  another 
plant  which  I judge  to  be  a kind  of  pirola,  and  proper  to  this 
country ; a very  beautiful  plant.  The  shape  of  the  leaf,  and 
the  just  bigness  of  it,  you  may  see  in  the  figure. 


The  Deaf  of  the  Plant  judged  to  be  a kind  of  Pirola. 


The  ground  whereof  is  a sap-green;  embroydered,  as  it 
were,  with  many  pale-yellow  ribs.  The  whole  plant,  in  shape, 
is  [68]  like  Semper  vivum , but  far  less ; being  not  above  a 
handful  high ; with  one  slender  stalk,  adorned  with  small, 
pale-yellow  flowers,  like  the  other  pirola.  It  groweth  not 
everywhere,  but  in  some  certain  small  spots  overgrown  with 


reason  why  as  good  wine  may  not  be  made  in  those  parts,  as  well  as  Bordeaux  in  France ; 
being  under  the  same  degree.”  — New-Enrj.  Prosjiect,  chap.  v.  “Vines,”  says  Mr. 
Graves  (in  New-Eng.  Plantation,  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  i.  p.  124)  “doe  grow  here,  plentifully 
laden  with  the  biggest  grapes  that  ever  I saw.  Some  I have  seene  foure  inches  about.” 
— “Our  Governour,”  adds  Higginson,  “hath  already  planted  a vineyard,  with  great 
hope  of  encrease.”  — New-England’s  Plantation , l.c.,  p.  119.  Vitis  Labrusca,  L.  (fox- 
grape), — for  some  principal  varieties  of  which,  see  Emerson,  l.  c.,  p.  468,  — furnished, 
probably,  most  of  the  sorts  known  favorably  to  the  first  settlers ; but  F.  aestivalis,  Michx. 
(summer  grape),  also  occurs  on  our  seaboard. 

3 Pyrola,  L.,  emend.  (Gerard,  p.  408).  All  but  one  of  our  species  are  common  also 
to  Europe. 


204 


ARCHA30L0GIA  AMERICANA. 


moss,  close  by  swamps,  and  shady.  They  are  green  both 
summer  and  winter.4 


For  Wounds. 

They  are  excellent  wound-herbs  ; but  this  I judge  to  be  the 
better  by  far.  Probatum  est. 


This  plant  was  brought  to  me  by  a neighbour,  who,  wander- 
ing in  the  woods  to  find  out  his  strayed  cattle,  lost  himself 
[69]  for  two  dayes  ; being,  as  he  ghessed,  eight  or  ten  miles 
from  the  seaside.  The  root  was  pretty  thick,  and  black ; hav- 
ing a number  of  small  black  strings  growing  from  it : the 
stalks  of  the  leaves  about  a handful  long.  The  leaves  were 
round,  and  as  big  as  a silver  five-shilling  piece  ; of  a sap  or 
dark-green  colour ; with  a line,  or  ribb,  as  black  as  jeat,  round 
the  circumference ; from  whence  came  black  lines,  or  ribs,  at 
equal  distance,  — all  of  them  meeting  in  a black  spot  in  the 
center.5 * * 8  If  I had  staid  longer  in  the  country,  I should  have 


4 Goodyera  pubescens  ( Willd.),  R.  Br.,  is  plainly  meant  by  the  author;  and  the  com- 

mon name  of  the  plant  — rattlesnake  plantain  — still  preserves  the  memory  of  its 
supposed  virtues  as  a wound-herb.  It  seems,  by  the  next  page,  that  Josselyn  tried  to 

carry  living  specimens  to  England;  but  they  “perished  at  sea.”  The  putting  this 

among  the  Pyrolce  (as  if  by  some  confusion  of  Goodyera  with  Chimophila  maculala)  was 
a bad  mistake. 

8 See  p.  55;  where  the  author  refers  to  his  figures  of  two  kinds  of  “ Pyrola,”  of 
which  this  must  be  one.  The  Voyages  (p.  202)  also  make  mention  of  an  adventure 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


205 


purposely  made  a journey  into  those  parts  where  it  was  ga- 
thered, to  discover,  if  possible,  the  stalk  and  flower.  But  now 
I shall  refer  it  to  those  that  are  younger,  and  better  able  to 
undergo  the  pains  and  trouble  of  finding  it  out : for  I under- 
stood by  the  natives,  that  it  is  not  common,  • — that  is,  every- 
where to  be  found,  — no  more  than  the  embroydered  pirola; 
which  also  is  a most  elegant  plant,  and  which  I did  endeavour 
to  bring  over ; but  it  perished  at  sea. 

For  Wounds. 

Clowne’s  all-heal  of  New  England  is  another  wound-herb 
not  inferiour  to  [70]  ours,  but  rather  beyond  it.  Some  of  our 
English  practitioners  take  it  for  vervene,  and  use  it  for  the 
same ; wherein  they  are  grossly  mistaken. 

The  leaf  is  like  a nettle-leaf,  but  narrower  and  longer ; 
the  stalk  about  the  bigness  of  a nettle-stalk,  — champhered 
and  hollow,  and  of  a dusky-red  colour.  The  flowers  are  blew, 
small,  and  many,  — growing  in  spoky  tufts  at  the  top,  — and 
are  not  hooded,  but  having  only  four  round  leaves ; after 
which  followeth  an  infinite  of  small,  longish,  light-brown 
seed.  The  roots  are  knotty,  and  matted  together  with  an 
infinite  number  of  small  white  strings.  The  whole  plant  is 
commonly  two  cubits  high ; bitter  in  taste,  with  a rosenie 
savour.6 


of  a neighbor  of  Josselyn’s,  who,  “ rashly  wandering  out  after  some  stray’d  cattle,  lost 
his  way;  and  coming,  as  we  conceived  by  his  Relation,  near  to  the  head-spring  of  some 
of  the  branches  of  Black-Point  River  or  Saco  River,  light  into  a tract  of  land,  for  God 
knows  how  many  miles,  full  of  delfes  and  dingles  and  dangerous  precipices,  rocks,  and 
inextricable  difficulties,  which  did  justly  daunt,  yea,  quite  deter  him  from  endeavour- 
ing to  pass  any  further.”  And  this  account  may  quite  possibly  relate  to  the  same 
occasion  of  our  author’s  getting  acquainted  with  his  “ elegant  plant.”  Plukenet 
(Amalth.,  p.  94;  Phytogr.,  tab.  287,  f.  5)  mistakenly  refers  Josselyn’s  “sufficiently 
unhappy  figure”  to  his  Filix  Hemionitis  dicta  Maderensis;  which  is  Adiantum  r mi- 
forme,  L. 

6 “ There  is  a plant,  likewise,  — called,  for  want  of  a name,  clowne’s  wound-wort, 
by  the  English ; though  it  be  not  the  same,  — that  will  heal  a green  wound  in  24  hours, 
if  a wise  man  have  the  ordering  of  it.”  — Voyages,  p.  60.  Verbena  hastala,  L.  (blue 


206 


ARCHA30L0GIA  AMERICANA. 


(3.) 

This  plant  is  one  of  the  first  that  springs  up,  after  white 
hellibore,  in  the  like  wet  and  black  grounds,  commonly  by  hel- 
libore;  with  a sheath,  or  hood,  like  dragons:  but  the  pestle 

[71] 


vervain),  is  perhaps,  notwithstanding  the  author’s  disclaimer,  what  he  had  in  view. 
This  is  certainly  different  from  the  common,  once  officinal,  vervain  of  Europe  ( V.  offici- 
nalis, L. ),  — on  the  virtues  of  which,  as  a wound-herb,  see  Gerard,  p.  718;  but  yet  more 
so  from  true  clown’s  all-heal  (Gerard,  p.  1005),  which  is  Slachys  paluslris,  L.  As  to 
other  medicinal  properties  of  our  vervains,  compare  Cutler,  l.  c.,  p.  405,  — where  they 
are  said  to  have  been  used  by  the  surgeons  of  our  army  in  the  Revolutionary  War, — 
and  Wood  and  Bache,  Dispens.,  p.  1403. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


207 


is  of  another  shape  ; that  is,  having  a round  purple  ball  on  the 
top  of  it,  beset  (as  it  were)  with  burs.  The  hood  shoots  forth 
immediately  from  the  root,  before  any  leaf  appears  ; having  a 
green  [72]  sprig  growing  fast  by  it,  like  the  smaller  horse-tayl. 
About  the  latter  end  of  April,  the  hood  and  sprig  wither 
away ; and  there  comes  forth  in  the  room  a bud,  like  the 
bud  of  the  walnut-tree,  but  bigger.  The  top  of  it  is  of  a 
pale-green  colour ; covered  with  brown  skins,  like  an  onion  ; 
white  underneath  the  leaves,  which  spread,  in  time,  out  of 
the  bud,  grow  from  the  root  with  a stalk  a foot  long,  and  are 
as  big  as  the  great  burdock-leaves,  and  of  the  colour.  The 
roots  are  many,  and  of  the  bigness  of  the  steel  of  a tobacco- 
pipe,  and  very  white.  The  whole  plant  sents  as  strong  as  a 
fox.  It  continues  till  August.7 


[74]  (4.) 

This  plant  the  humming-bird  feedeth  upon.  It  groweth 
likewise  in  wet  grounds,  and  is  not  at  its  full  growth  till  July; 
and  then  it  is  two  cubits  high,  and  better.  The  leaves  are 
thin,  and  of  a pale-green  colour ; some  of  them  as  big  as  a 
nettle-leaf.  It  spreads  into  many  branches,  — knotty  at  the 
setting-on,  and  of  a purple  colour,  and  garnished  on  the  top 
with  many  hollow,  dangling  flowers,  of  a bright-yellow  colour ; 
speckled  with  a deeper  yellow,  as  it  were  shadowed.  The 


n/ 


7 Symplocarpus  fcetidus  (L.)  Salisb.  (skunk-cabbage).  Our  author’s  appears  to  be 
the  first  figure  and  account  of  this  curious  plant,  which  he  rightly  places  among  such 
“ as  are  proper  to  the  country,  and  have  no  name.”  Cutler’s  description,  in  1785  (Ac- 
count of  Indig.  Veg.,  l.c.,  pp.  407-9),  — which  is  followed  by  the  remark,  that  “the 
fructification  so  essentially  differs  from  all  the  genera  of  this  order,  it  must  undoubt- 
edly be  considered  as  a new  genus,”  — was  the  next  contribution  of  importance,  and  so 
continued  till  Dr.  Bigelow’s  elaborate  history ; — Amer.  Med.  Hot.,  vol.  ii.  p.  41,  pi.  xxiv. 
Josselyn’s  “sprig”  of  a horse-tail  might  perhaps  be  added  to  his  Filices,  at  p.  47, 
note  2,  3. 


208 


ARCHJEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


[73]  A Branch  of  the  Humming-Bird  Tree. 


stalkes  are  as  hollow  as  a kix ; and  so  are  the  roots,  which  are 
transparent,  very  tender,  and  full  of  a yellowish  juice.8 


8 Impatiens  fulva,  Nutt,  (touch-me-not;  balsam).  Wilson  says  this  plant  “is  the 
greatest  favorite  with  the  humming-bird  of  all  our  other  flowers.  In  some  places  where 
these  plants  abound,  you  may  see  at  one  time  ten  or  twelve  humming-birds  dart- 
ing about,  and  fighting  with  and  pursuing  each  other.”  — Amer.  Ornithol.,  by  Brewer, 
p.  120.  As  to  Josselyn’s  note  on  its  use  in  medicine  by  the  Indians,  compare  Wood 
and  Bache,  Disp.,  p.  1345.  A kix,  or  kex,  or  kexy,  — used  in  the  expression,  “hollow 


new-england’s  baeities  discoyeeed. 


209 


For  Bruises  and  Aches  upon  stroalcs. 

The  Indians  make  use  of  it  for  aches  ; being  bruised  be- 
tween two  stones,  and  laid  to,  cold.  But,  made  (after  the 
English  manner)  into  an  unguent,  with  hog’s  grease,  there  is 
not  a more  soveraign  remedy  for  bruises,  of  what  kind  soever ; 
and  for  aches  upon  stroaks. 


In  August,  1670,  in  a swamp  amongst  alders,  I found  a sort 
of  tree  sow-thistle  ; the  stalks  of  some,  two  or  three  inches 
[75]  about;  as  hollow  as  a kix,  and  very  brittle.  The  leaves 
were  smooth,  and,  in  shape,  like  Sonchus  Icevis,  — that  is, 
hare’s-lettice,  — but  longer;  some  about  a foot.  These  grow 
at  a distance  one  from  another,  almost  to  the  top ; where  it 
begins  to  put  forth  flowers  between  the  leaves  and  the  stalk. 
The  top  of  the  stalk  runs  out  into  a spike,  beset  about  with 
flowers  like  sow-thistle,  of  a blew  or  azure  colour.  I brought 
home  one  of  the  plants,  which  was  between  twelve  and  thir- 
teen foot  in  length.  I wondered  at  it  the  more,  for  that  so 
large  and  tall  a plant  should  grow  from  so  small  a root,  con- 
sisting of  slender,  white  strings,  little  bigger  than  bents,  and 
not  many  of  them,  and  none  above  a finger  long,  spreading- 
under  the  upper  crust  of  the  earth.  The  -whole  plant  is  full 
of  milk,  and  of  a strong  savour.9 


as  a kix,” — is  a provincialism,  in  various  parts  of  England,  for  hemlock;  “the  dry, 
hollow  stalks  of  hemlock ” (whence  Webster’s  query,  — Fr„  cique;  Lat.,  cicuta);  and 
also  of  cow-parsley,  according  to  Holloway  (Diet,  of  Provincialisms):  that  is  to  say, 
secondarily,  any  hollow-stemmed  plant  like  hemlock.  Gerard’s  figure  of  Impatievs 
noli  langere,  L.,  the  European  balsam,  — of  which  the  earlier  botanists  considered  our 
species  to  be  varieties, — is  so  poor,  and  the  plant  so  rare  in  Britain,  that  it  is  perhaps 
little  wonder  that  our  author  took  the  showy  American  balsam  to  be  quite  new. 

9 Mulgedium  hucophoeum , DC,  (Gray,  Manual,  p,  341).  This  fine  plant  is  peculiar 
to  America. 


27 


210 


ARCHH30L0GIA  AMERICANA. 


(5.) 

This  plant  I found  in  a gloomy,  dry  wood,  under  an  oak, 
1670,  the  18th  of  August.  Afterwards  I found  it  in  open 
champain  grounds,  but  yet  somewhat  scarce.  The  root 
is  about  the  bigness  of  a French  walnut.  The  bark  thereof  is 


[76]  The  Plant  when  it  springs  up  first. 


brown  and  rugged ; within,  of  a yellowish  colour : from  whence 
ariseth  a slender  stalk,  no  bigger  than  an  oat-straw ; about 
two  cubits  in  height.  Somewhat  better  than  a handful  above 
the  root  shooteth  out  one  leaf,  of  a grass-green  colour ; and, 
an  inch  or  two  above  that,  another  leaf ; and  so  four  or  five, 
at  a greater  distance  one  from  another,  till  they  come  within 
a handful  of  the  top,  where,  upon  slender  foot-stalks,  grow 
the  flowers,  — four  or  five,  more  or  fewer,  — clustering  to- 
gether in  pale,  long,  green  husks,  milk-white ; consisting  of 
ten  small  leaves,  snipt  a little  on  the  edges ; with  purple  hair 
threads  in  the  midst.  The  whole  plant  is  of  a brakish  fast. 
When  it  is  at  its  full  growth,  the  stalks  are  as  red  as  blood.1 


1 Nabalus  albus  (L.)  Hook,  (snake-weed):  the  genus  peculiar  to  America. 


njew-england’s  rarities  discoyered. 


211 


[77]  The  Figure  of  the  Plant,  when  it  is  at  Full  Growth. 


[79]  (6.) 

This  plant  flowers  in  August,  and  grows  in  wet  ground.  It 
is  about  three  or  four  foot  in  height ; having  a square,  slen- 
der stalk,  chamfered,  hollow,  and  tuff.  The  leaves  grow  at 
certain  distances,  one  against  another ; of  the  colour  of  egri- 
mony  leaves ; sharpe-pointed ; broadest  in  the  midst  about 
an  inch  and  half,  and  three  or  four  inches  in  length  ; snipt 
about  the  edges,  like  a nettle-leaf ; at  the  top  of  the  stalk,  for 
four  or  five  inches,  thick-set  with  pale-green  husks,  out  of 
which  the  flowers  grow ; consisting  of  one  leaf,  shaped  like 
the  head  of  a serpent,  opening  at  the  top  like  a mouth,  and 
hollow  throughout,  containing  four  crooked  pointels ; and,  on 
the  top  of  every  pointel,  a small,  glistering,  green  button, 
covered  with  a little  white,  woolly  matter,  by  which  they  are, 


212 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


with  the  pointels,  fastened  close  together,  and  shore  up  the 
tip  of  the  upper  chap.  The  crooked  pointels  are  very  stiff 
and  hard  from  the  bottom  of  the  husks,  wherein  the  flower 
stands.  From  the  top  of  the  seed-vessel  shoots  out  a white 
thread,  which  runs  in  at  the  bottom  of  the  flower,  and  so  [80] 
out  at  the  mouth.  The  whole  flower  is  milk-Avhite ; the  inside 
of  the  chaps  reddish.  The  root  I did  not  observe.2 


2 Chelone  glabra , L.  (snake-head).  Plukenet  quotes  this  figurq  under  Digitalis  Ver- 
besinw  fuliis,  &c.  (Atnalth.,  p.  71;  Mant.,  p.  64);  which  is  referred  by  Linnaeus  to 
Gerardia  pedicularis , L.  Plukenet  has  himself  figured  our  plant,  and  but  little  better 
than  Josselyn,  in  Phytogr.,  t.  348,  fig.  3.  The  genus  is  peculiar  to  America. 


nbw-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


213 


This  plant  I take  for  a variegated  Herb  Paris  (true-love  or 
one-berry,  or  rather  one-flower),  which  is  milk-white,  and  made 
up  with  four  leaves,  with  many  black  threads  in  the  middle. 
Upon  every  thread  grows  a berry  (when  the  leaves  of  the 
flower  are  fallen),  as  big  as  a white  pease,  of  a light-red  col- 
our when  they  are  ripe,  and  clustering  together  in  a round 
form  as  big  as  a pullet’s  egg,  which  at  distance  shows  but  as 
one  berry ; very  pleasant  in  taste,  and  not  unwholesome.  The 
root,  leaf,  and  flower  differ  not  from  our  English  kind ; and 
their  time  of  blooming  and  ripening  agree ; and  therefore, 
doubtless,  a kind  of  Herba  Paris? 


3 Upon  this  figure,  Plukenet  founds  his  Solarium,  quadrifolium  Nov' Anglicanum,  jlore 
lacteo  polycoccum  (Amalth.,  p.  195);  clearly  taking  the  plant,  as  Josselyn  did,  for  “a 


214 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


[82]  The  small  Sunflower,  or  Marigold,  of  America. 


[84]  (8.) 

This  plant  is  taken  by  our  simplists  to  be  a kind  of  golden- 
rod  ; by  others,  for  Sarazens  Consound.  I judge  it  to  be  a 


kind  of  Herba  Paris  ” ( Paris  quadrifolia , L.),  which  is  Solarium  quadrifolium  bacciferum 
of  Bauhin  (Pin.,  p.  167,  cit.  L.).  The  plant  is  doubtless  Cornus  Canadensis , L.  (dwarf- 
cornel;  bunch-berry);  and  it  certainly  resembles  the  figure  of  Herb  Paris,  given  by 
Gerard  (p.  405),  much  more  than  that  of  Cornus  suecica,  L.  (European  dwarf-cornel, 
p.  1296),  — a shrub  ill  understood  by  the  old  botanists. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


215 


kind  of  small  sun-flower,  or  marygold  of  the  West  Indies. 
The  root  is  brown  and  slender,  a foot  and  half  in  length,  run- 
ning a slope  under  the  upper  face  of  the  earth ; with  some 
strings  here  and  there : the  stalk  as  big  as  the  steal  of  a to- 
bacco-pipe ; full  of  pith ; commonly  brownish,  sometimes  pur- 
ple ; three  or  four  foot  high.  The  leaves  grow  at  a distance 
one  against  another ; rough ; hard ; green  above,  and  gray 
underneath;  slightly  snipt;  and  the  ribs  appear  most  on  the 
back  side  of  the  leaf.  The  flower  is  of  a bright  yellow,  with 


216 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


little  yellow  cups  in  the  midst,  as  in  the  marygold  of  Peru ; 
with  black  threads  in  them,  with  yellow  pointels.  The  flower 
spreads  itself  abroad  out  of  a cup  made  up  of  many  green 
beards,  not  unlike  a thistle.  Within  a handful  of  the  top  of 
the  stalk,  when  the  flower  is  fallen,  growes  an  excrense,  or 
knob,  as  big  as  a walnut ; which,  being  broken,  yieldeth  a 
kind  of  turpentine,  or  rather  rosen.4 

[85]  What  Cutchenele  is. 

The  stalk  beneath  and  above  the  knob  covered  with  a mul- 
titude of  small  bugs,  about  the  bigness  of  a great  flea ; which 
I pi’esume  will  make  good  cutchenele,  — ordered,  as  they 
should  be,  before  they  come  to  have  wings.  They  make  a 
perfect  scarlet  colour  to  paint  with,  and  durable. 


4.  Of  such  Plants  as  have  sprung  up  since  the  English  planted 
and  kept  Cattle  in  New  England .5 
Couch-grass.6 
Shepherd’s-purse.7 
Dandelion.8 


* Belianlhus , L.,  sp.  (sun-flower);  a genus  peculiar  to  America,  The  species  is 

perhaps  H.  slrumosus , L.  (Gray,  Man.,  p.  218).  — See  p.  56  of  this  book;  note. 

6  The  importance  of  this  list  has  been  already  spoken  of.  Its  value  depends  on  its 
having  been  drawn  up  by  a person  of  familiarity  with  some  of  the  botanical  writers 
of  his  day,  as  part  of  a botanical  treatise;  and  the  (in  this  case)  not  unfair  presumption 
that  the  names  cited  are  meant  to  be  accurate.  Mr.  A.  De  Candolle  ( Geogr . Bolanique, 
vol.il.  p.746)  appears  to  be  unacquainted  with  any  authority  for  the  naturalized  plants 
of  the  Northern  States  earlier  than  the  first  edition  of  the  Florula  of  Dr.  Bigelow,  in 
1814.  The  treatise  of  Cutler  extends  this  limit  to  1785;  and  that  of  Josselyn,  so  far 
as  it  goes,  to  1673. 

6 Doubtful.  Gerard’s  couch-grass,  p.  23,  appears  to  be  Eolcus  mollis , L.,  — "the 
true  couch-grass  of  sandy  soils”  in  England;  and  English  agricultural  writers  reckon 
yet  other  grasses  Gf  this  name,  beside  the  well-known  Triticum  repens,  L. 

7 Gerard,  p.  276,  — Capsella  Bursa  Pastoris  (L.),  Moench.  “ Cornfields,  and  about 
barns,”  — Culler  (1785),  l.  c.  Naturalized. 

8 Gerard,  p.  290,  — - Taraxacum  Dens  Leonis,  Desf. ; looked,  to  our  author,  like  a new- 
comer. Dr.  Gray  (Man.,  p.  239;  and  comp.  Torr.  and  Gray,  FI.,  vol.  ii.  p.  494)  regards 
it  as  “ probably  indigenous  in  the  north,”  but  only  naturalized  in  other  regions.  “ Grass- 
land,” — Cutler  (1785),  l.  c. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


217 


Groundsel.9 
Sow-thistle.* 1 
Wild  arrach.2 

Night-shade,  with  the  white  flower.3 

Nettles  stinging,  which  was  the  first  plant  taken  notice 
of.4 

Mallowes.5 

[86]  Plantain,  which  the  Indians  call  Englishman’s  foot;  as 
though  produced  by  their  treading.6 


9 Gerard,  p.  278,  — Senecio  vulgaris,  L. ; one  of  the  adventive  naturalized  plants,  as 
defined  by  Mr.  De  Candolle  (1.  c.,  vol.  ii.  p.  688;  and  Gray,  Man.  Bot.,  pref.,  p.  viii.), 
according  to  the  evidence  of  Dr.  Darlington  (FI.  Cestr.,  p.  152),  and  Gray,  l.  c.  But  it 
has  long  been  a common  weed  in  eastern  New  England;  and  may  possibly  have  had, 
here  and  there,  a continuous  existence  from  the  first  settlement. 

1 Sonchus,  L.  S.  oleraceus,  L.,  as  understood  by  Linnaeus,  was  no  doubt  intended: 
but  this  is  now  taken  to  include  two  species,  both  recognized  in  this  country  (Gray, 
l.  c.,  p.  241);  between  which  there  is  no  evidence  to  authorize  a decision. 

2 The  genera  Chenopodium,  L.,  and  Atriplex,  L.,  were  much  confused  in  Josselyn’s 
day;  and  his  wild  orach  may  belong  to  either.  Gerard’s  wild  orach  is  in  part  Atriplex 
patula , L.  (p.  326);  but  the  first  species  to  which  he  gives  this  name  (p.  325)  is  Cheno- 
podium polyspermum,  L.  The  latter  is  a rare,  adventive  member  of  our  Flora  (Gray,  l.  c., 
p.  363);  and  the  former  is,  according  to  Bigelow  (FI.  Bost.,  ed.  3,  p.  401),  the  well- 
known  orach  of  our  salt-marshes:  but  Dr.  Gray  now  refers  this  (Man.,  p.  365)  to  the 
nearly  allied  A.  haslata,  L.  This  plant,  in  either  case,  is  reckoned  truly  common  to 
both  continents.  It  is  possible  that  Josselyn  intended  it. 

3 Garden  nightshade  (Gerard,  p.  339);  Solanum  nigrum , L.  “ Common  among  rub- 
bish,” — Cutler  (1785),  l.  c.  Naturalized. 

4 Common  stinging-nettle,  or  great  nettle  (Gerard,  p.  706), — Urtica  dioica , L. 

5 Field-mallow  (Gerard,  p.  930),  Malva  sylvestris,  L.,  and  wild  dwarf-mallow  (ibid.), 
M.  rotundifolia,  L.,  are  the  only  sorts  likely  to  have  been  in  view.  The  latter  was,  I 
doubt  not,  intended ; and  the  former,  adventive  only  with  us,  may  also  have  occurred  at 
any  period  after  the  settlement. 

6 “ It  is  but  one  sort,  and  that  is  broad-leaved  plantain  ” (Josselyn’s  Voyages,  p.  188). 
Broad-leaved  plantain  (Gerard,  p.  419),  — Plantago  major , L. ; one  of  the  most  anciently 
and  widely  known  of  plants,  and  inhabiting,  at  present,  all  the  great  divisions  of  the 
earth.  An  account,  similar  to  our  author’s,  of  the  name  given  to  it  by  the  American 
savages,  is  found  in  Kalm’s  Travels.  “ Mr.  Bartram  had  found  this  plant  in  many 
places  on  his  travels;  but  he  did  not  know  whether  it  was  an  original  American  plant, 
or  whether  the  Europeans  had  brought  it  over.  This  doubt  had  its  rise  from  the  sav- 
ages (who  always  had  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the  plants  of  the  country)  pretending 
that  this  plant  never  grew  here  before  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans.  They  therefore 
gave  it  a name  which  signifies  the  Englishman’s  foot;  for  they  say,  that,  where  a 
European  had  walked,  there  this  plant  grew  in  his  footsteps.”  — Kalm's  Travels  into 
North  America,  by  Forster,  vol.  i.  p.  92.  But  Dr.  Pickering  considers  it  possible,  that, 
in  North-west  America  at  least,  the  plantain  was  introduced  by  the  aborigines  (Races 
of  Man,  pp.  317,  320):  and,  uncertain  as  this  is  admitted  to  be,  the  old  vulgar  names  of 

28 


218 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Black  henbane.* * * * * * 7 
Wormwood.8 
Sharp-pointed  dock.9 
Patience.1 
Bloodwort.2 


the  plant  in  Northern  languages  — as  Wegerich  and  Wegetritt  of  the  German,.  Weegblad 
and  Weegbree  of  the  Dutch,  Veibred  of  the  Danish,  and  Weybred  of  old  English,  all 
pointing  to  the  plantain’s  growing  on  ways  trodden  by  man  — suggest,  perhaps,  a far 
older  supposed  relation  between  this  plant  and  the  human  foot  than  that  mentioned 
above ; and  thus  favor  the  derivation  of  the  original  Latin  name  (as  old  as  Pliny,  H.  N., 
vol.  xxxv.  § 539)  from  planta , the  sole  of  the  foot,  — whether  because  the  plantain  is 
always  trodden  on,  or,  taking  the  termination  go  in  planlago,  as  some  philologists  take 
it,  to  signify  likeness  (as  doubtless  in  lappago , mollugo , asperugo;  but  this  signification 

does  not  appear  so  clear  in  some  other  words  with  the  like  ending),  because  its  leaves 
resemble  the  sole  of  the  foot  iu  flatness,  breadth,  marking,  and  so  on.  The  possible 

derivation  from  planta,  a plant,  “ per  excellenliam , quasi  plantam  prwstantissimam ” 

(Tournef.,  Inst.,  vol.  i.  p.  128),  though  less  open  to  question  than  that  of  Linnaeus 
(“ planta  tangenda ,”  Phil.  Bot.,  § 234),  is  certainly  less  significant  than  the  other; 

which,  with  the  statements  (independent,  so  far  as  appears,  of  each  other)  of  Josse- 
lyn  and  Kalm,  if  these  may  be  relied  on,  seems  to  point  to  a very  ancient  co-incidence 

of  thought,  not  unworthy  of  attention.  Something  else  of  the  same  sort  is  to  be  found 
in  R.  Williams,  where  he  says  (Key,  l.  c.,  p.  218)  that  the  Massachusetts  Indians  called 
the  constellation  of  the  Great  Bear  mask,  or  pawlcunnawaw ; that  is,  the  bear. 

7 Gerard,  p.  353,  — Hyoscyamus  niger,  L.  Advenlive  only:  having  “escaped  from 
gardens  to  roadsides,”  according  to  Dr.  Gray  (Man.,  p.  340);  but  “common  amongst 
rubbish  and  by  roadsides”  in  1785  (Cutler,  l.  c.),  and  perhaps  long  naturalized  on  the 
coasts  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

8 Broad-leaved  wormwood,  “our  common  and  best-knowne  wormwood”  (Gerard, 
p.  1096),  — Artemisia  absyn/hium , L.  “ Roadsides  and  amongst  rubbish,”  1785,  — Cutler , 
l.  c.  Omitted  by  Bigelow,  and  not  very  frequent. 

9 Gerard,  p.  388.  If  this  is  to  be  taken  for  liumex  aculus,  Sm.  (FI.  Brit.),  which 
seems  not  to  be  certain,  it  is  now  referable  to  R.  conglomeratus , Murr.,  which  is  “spar- 
ingly introduced  ” with  us,  according  to  Gray  (Man.,  p.  377).  But  it  is  more  likely  th.at 
Josselvn  had  R.  crispus , L.  (curled  dock),  in  view:  which  is,  I suppose,  the  “varietie” 
of  sharp-pointed  dock,  “ with  crisped  or  curled  leaves,”  of  Johnson’s  Gerard,  p.  387 ; 
and  is  the  only  mention  of  the  species  by  those  authors. 

1 Gerard,  p.  389,  — Rumex  Patientia,  L.  This  and  the  next  were  garden  pot-herbs 
of  repute:  and,  at  p.  90,  our  author  brings  them  in  again  as  such;  telling  us  that 
bloodwort  grows  “ but  sorrily,”  but  patience  “ very  pleasantly.”  This  may  very  likely 
have  crept  out  of  some  garden:  but  the  great  water-dock  (R.  Bydrolapathum,  Huds.) 
is,  says  Gerard,  “not  unlike  to  the  garden  patience”  (p.  390);  and  Dr.  Gray  says  the 
same  of  the  American  variety  of  the  former.  — Man.,  p.  377. 

2 Gerard,  p.  390,. — Rumex  sanguineus,  L.,  “sown  for  a pot-herb  in  most  gardens” 
(Gerard);  and  so  our  author,  p.  90.  Linnaeus  took  it  to  be  originally  American:  but 
it  is  common  in  Europe;  and  Dr.  Gray  marks  the  American  plant  as  naturalized.  Dr. 
Torrey  indicated  the  species  as  occurring  about  New  York  in  1819  (Oatal.  PI.,  N.Y.); 
but  New-England  botanists  do  not  appear  to  have  recognized  it.  Josselyn’s  plant  was 
perhaps  the  offcast  of  some  garden. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


219 


And,  I suspect,  adder’s-tongue.8 

Knot-grass.* * 4 

Cheek-weed.5 

Compherie,  with  the  white  flower.6 

May-weed ; excellent  for  the  mother.  Some  of  our  English 
housewives  call  it  iron-wort,  and  make  a good  unguent  for  old 
sores.7 8 

The  great  clot-bur.8 

Mullin,  with  the  white  flower.9 

Q.  What  became  of  the  influence  of  those  planets  that  pro- 
duce and  govern  these  plants  before  this  time  ? 

I have  now  done  with  such  plants  as  grow  wild  in  the 
country  in  great  plenty,  although  I have  not  mentioned  all. 


8 Gerard,  p.  404.  — Compare  p.  42  of  this ; where  our  author  more  correctly  reckons 

it  among  plants  truly  common  to  Europe  and  America. 

4 “ Common  knot-grasse”  (Gerard,  p.  565),  — Polygonum  aviculare , L.  Common  to 
all  the  great  divisions  of  the  earth,  and  reckoned  indigenous  in  America.  — Do  Cand., 
Geogr.  Bot .,  vol.  i.  p.  577 ; Gray , Man.,  p.  373. 

5 There  are  many  chickweeds  in  Gerard ; but  that  most  likely  to  have  been  in  the 
author’s  view  here  is  the  universally  known  common  chickweed,  — the  middle  or  small 
chickweed  of  Gerard,  p.  611.  This  was  “ common  in  gardens  and  rich  cultivated 
ground”  in  1785.  — Cutler,  l.c.  Few  plants  have  spread  so  widely  over  the  earth  as 
Stellaria  media. 

6 Great  comfrey  (Gerard,  p.  806), — Symphytum  officinale,  L.:  also  in  the  list  of 
garden  herbs  at  p.  90.  “Sometimes  found  growing  wild,”  — Cutler  (1786),  l.  c.  Not 
admitted  by  Dr.  Bigelow  (FI.  Bost.),  but  included  by  Dr.  Gray  as  an  adventive.  — Man., 
p.  320. 

1 Gerard,  p.  757,  — Maruta  cotula  ( L. ),  DC.;  a naturalized  member  of  our  Flora, 
now  become  a very  common  ornament  of  roadsides;  where  Cutler  notices  it,  also,  in 
1785. 

8 “Great  burre-docke,  or  clott-burre”  (Gerard,  p.  809),  — Lappa  major,  Gaertn. 
“About  barns,” — Cutler  (1785),  l.c. 

9 “White-floured  mullein”  (Gerard,  p.  773),  — perhaps  Verbascum  Lyclinitis,  L.; 
which  is  adventive  in  some  parts  of  the  United  States  (Gray,  Man.,  p.  283),  but  is  not 
otherwise  known  to  have  made  its  appearance  in  New  England.  Great  mullein  ( V. 
Thapsus  L.)  was  “common”  in  Cutler’s  time.  The  moth-mullein  ( V.  Blattaria,  L.) 
he  only  knew  “ by  roadsides  in  Lynn  ” ( l . c.,  p.  419).  Other  plants  referable  to  this  list 
of  naturalized  weeds  are  “ wild  sorrel,”  p.  42;  Polygonum  Persicaria , p.  43;  St.  John’s 
wort,  speedwell,  chickweed,  male  fluellin,  catmint,  and  clot-bur,  p.  44;  yarrow,  and 
oak  of  Jerusalem,  p.  46;  pimpernel,  and  toadflax,  p.  48;  and  wild  purslain,  and  woad- 
waxen,  p.  51.  See  also  spearmint,  and  ground-ivy,  p.  89 ; and  elecampane,  celandine, 
and  tansy,  p.  90. 


220 


ARCHrEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


I shall  now,  in  the  fifth  place,  give  you  to  under [8 7] stand 
what  English  herbs  we  have  growing  in  our  gardens,  that 
prosper  there  as  well  as  in  their  proper  soil ; and  of  such  as 
do  not ; and  also  of  such  as  will  not  grow  there  at  all. 


5.  Of  such  Garden-Herbs  amongst  us  as  do  thrive  there,  and  of 
such  as  do  not.1 

Cabbidge  growes  there  exceeding  well. 

Lettice. 


1 The  earliest,  almost  the  only  account  that  we  have  of  the  gardens  of  our  fathers, 
after  they  had  settled  themselves  in  their  New  England,  and  had  tamed  its  nigged 
coasts  to  obedience  to  English  husbandry.  What  with  their  garden  beans,  and  Indian 
beans,  and  pease  (“as  good  as  ever  I eat  in  England,”  says  Higginson  in  1629);  their 
beets,  parsnips,  turnips,  and  carrots  (“  our  turnips,  parsnips,  and  carrots  are  both  bigger 
and  sweeter  than  is  ordinary  to  be  found  in  England,”  says  the  same  reverend  writer); 
their  cabbages  and  asparagus,  — both  thriving,  we  are  told,  exceedingly;  their  radishes 
and  lettuce;  their  sorrel,  parsley,  chervil,  and  marigold,  for  pot-herbs;  and  their  sage, 
thyme,  savory  of  both  kinds,  clary,  anise,  fennel,  coriander,  spearmint,  and  pennyroyal, 
for  sweet  herbs,  — not  to  mention  the  Indian  pompions  and  melons  and  squanter- 
squashes,  “and  other  odde  fruits  of  the  country,”  — the  first-named  of  which  had  got  to 
be  so  well  approved  among  the  settlers,  when  Josselyn  wrote  in  1672,  that  what  he  calls 
“ the  ancient  New-England  standing  dish”  (we  may  well  call  it  so  now!)  was  made  of 
them ; and,  finally,  their  pleasant,  familiar  flowers,  lavender-cotton  and  hollyhocks  and 
satin  (“we  call  this  herbe,  in  Norfolke,  sattin,”  says  Gerard;  “and,  among  our  women, 
it  is  called  honestie”)  and  gillyflowers,  which  meant  pinks  as  well,  and  dear  English 
roses,  and  eglantine,  — yes,  possibly,  hedges  of  eglantine  (p.  90,  note),  — surely  the  gar- 
dens of  New  England,  fifty  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  country,  were  as  well 
stocked  as  they  were  a hundred  and  fifty  years  after.  Nor  were  the  first  planters  long 
behindhand  in  fruit.  Even  at  his  first  visit,  in  1639,  our  author  was  treated  with  “ half 
a score  very  fair  pippins,”  from  the  Governor’s  Island  in  Boston  Harbor;  though  there 
was  then,  he  says  (Voyages,  p.  29),  “ not  one  apple  tree  nor  pear  planted  yet  in  no  part 
of  the  countrey  but  upon  that  island.”  But  he  has  a much  better  account  to  give  in 
1671:  “The  quinces,  cherries,  damsons,  set  the  dames  a work.  Marmalad  and  pre- 
served damsons  is  to  be  met  with  in  every  house.  Our  fruit-trees  prosper  abundantly, 
— apple-trees,  pear-trees,  quince-trees,  cherry-trees,  plum-trees,  barberry-trees.  I have 
observed,  with  admiration,  that  the  kernels  sown,  or  the  succors  planted,  produce  as 
fair  and  good  fruit,  without  graffing,  as  the  tree  from  whence  they  were  taken.  The 
countrey  is  replenished  with  fair  and  large  orchards.  It  was  affirmed  by  one  Mr.  IVool- 
cut  (a  magistrate  in  Connecticut  Colony),  at  the  Captain’s  messe  (of  which  I was), 
aboard  the  ship  I came  home  in,  that  he  made  five  hundred  hogsheads  of  syder  out  of 
his  own  orchard  in  one  year.”  — Voyages , p.  189-90.  Our  barberry-bushes,  now  so 
familiar  inhabitants  of  the  hedgerows  of  Eastern  New  England,  should  seem  from  this 
to  have  come,  with  the  eglantines,  from  the  gardens  of  the  first  settlers.  Barberries 
“ are  planted  in  most  of  our  English  gardens,”  says  Gerard. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


221 


Sorrel. 

Parsley. 

Mary  gold. 

French  mallowes. 

Chervel. 

Burnet. 

Winter  savory. 

Summer  savory. 

Time. 

Sage. 

Carrats. 

Parsnips,  of  a prodigious  size. 

Red  beetes. 

[88]  Radishes. 

Turnips. 

Purslain.2 3 

Wheat.8 

Rye. 

Barley,  which  commonly  degenerates  into  oats. 

Oats. 

Pease  of  all  sorts,  and  the  best  in  the  world.  I never  heard 
of,  nor  did  see  in  eight  years’  time,  one  worm-eaten  pea. 
Garden  beans.4 

Naked  oats5 6 *  (there  called  silpee)  ; an  excellent  grain,  used 
instead  of  oat-meal.  They  dry  it  in  an  oven,  or  in  a pan  upon 
the  fire ; then  beat  it  small  in  a morter. 


2 Portulaca  oleracea , L. ; /3.  sativa,  L.  (garden  purslain).  The  wild  variety  is  also 
reckoned  by  our  author,  in  his  list  of  plants,  common  to  us  and  the  Old  World  (p.  51). 

3 See  .Tosselyn’s  Voyages,  p.  188. 

4 Vicia  Faba,  Willd.,  of  which  the  Windsor  bean  is  a variety.  The  author  compares 
it,  at  p.  56,  with  kidney-beans  ( Phaseolus  vulgaris , L. ),  called  Indian  beans  by  the  first 
settlers,  who  had  them  from  the  savages,  to  the  advantage  of  the  last-mentioned  sort; 

which  probably  soon  drove  the  other  out  of  our  gardens.  — Compare  Cobbett’s  Ameri- 
can Gardener,  p.  105. 

6 Gerard,  p.  75,  — Arena  nuda , L.;  derived  from  common  oats  (A.  sativa , L.)  accord- 

ing to  Link;  and  also  (in  Gerard’s  time,  and  even  later)  in  cultivation.  It  was  called 

pillcorn,  or  peelcorn,  because  the  grains,  when  ripe,  drop  naked  from  the  husks.  But 


222 


ARCH.EOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Another  standing  Disli  in  New  England. 

And,  when  the  milk  is  ready  to  boil,  they  put  into  a pottle 
of  milk  about  ten  or  twelve  spoonfuls  of  this  meal : so  boil  it 
leasurely ; stirring  of  it,  every  foot,  least  it  burn  too.  When 
it  is  almost  boiled  enough,  they  hang  the  kettle  up  higher, 
and  let  it  stew  only.  In  short  time,  it  will  thicken  like  a cus- 
tard. They  season  it  [89]  with  a little  sugar  and  spice,  and 
so  serve  it  to  the  table  in  deep  basons ; and  it  is  altogether 
as  good  as  a white-pot. 

For  People  ivealcened  icitli  long  Sickness. 

It  exceedingly  nourisheth  and  strengthens  people  weak- 
ened with  long  sickness. 

Sometimes  they  make  water-gruel  with  it ; and  sometimes 
thicken  their  flesh-broth  either  with  this,  or  homminey,  if  it 
be  for  servants. 

Spear-mint.* * * * * 6 

Rew  will  hardly  grow. 

Fetherfew  prospereth  exceedingly. 

Southern  wood  is  no  plant  for  this  country ; nor 

Rosemary ; nor 

Bayes.7 


is  it  not  possible  that  our  author’s  Silpee  (comparable  with  apee,  a leaf;  toopee,  a root; 

ahpee,  a bow,  in  the  Micmac  language,  — Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  20,  24)  was  really 
the  American  name  of  the  well-known  water-oats,  or  Canada  rice,  — Zizania  aqua- 

tica,  L.;  the  deciduous  grains  of  which  are  said  to  afford  “a  very  good  meal”  (Loudon, 

Encych,  p.  788),  with  the  qualities  of  rice?  — See  Bigel.,  FI.  Bosl.,  edit.  3,  p.  369.  This 
has  long  been  used  by  our  savages ; but  I have  not  met  with  any  mention  of  it  in  the 

early  writers.  The  “standing  dish  in  New  England”  has  its  interest,  if  it  were  really 
made  of  Canada  rice. 

6 Gerard,  p.  680,  — Mentha  viridis,  L.  It  perhaps  soon  became  naturalized.  “In 
moist  ground”  (1785).  — Culler , l.  c. 

1 Perhaps  only  an  inference  of  the  author’s,  from  the  southern  origin  of  these  three 
shrubs.  Lavender  also  belongs  naturally  to  a warmer  climate. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


223 


White  satten  groweth  pretty  well ; so  cloth 
Lavender-cotton.8  But 
Lavender  is  not  for  the  climate. 

Pennyroyal. 

Smalledge. 

Ground-ivy,  or  ale-hoof.9 
Gilly-flowers  will  continue  two  years.* 1 

[90]  Fennel  must  be  taken  up,  and  kept  in  a warm  cellar 
all  winter. 

Housleek  prosperetk  notably. 

Hollyhocks. 

Enula  Campagna.  In  two  years’  time,  the  roots  rot..2 
Comferie,  with  white  flowers. 

Coriander  and 
Hill  and 

Annis  thrive  exceedingly ; but  annis-seed,  as  also  the  seed 
of  fennel,  seldom  come  to  maturity.  The  seed  of  annis  is 
commonly  eaten  with  a fly. 

Clary  never  lasts  but  one  summer.  The  roots  rot  with  the 
frost. 

Sparagus  thrives  exceedingly  ; so  does 
Garden-sorrel,  and 
Sweet-bryer,  or  eglantine.3 


8 Gerard,  p.  1109,  — Santolina  Chamce  Cyparissus,  L. 

9 Gerard,  p.  856.  — Gleclioma  hederacea,  L. ; once  of  great  medicinal  repute : which 
accounts  for  our  author’s  finding  it,  as  it  should  seem,  among  garden-herbs.  It  has 
become  naturalized  and  very  familiar  in  New  England.  Cutler  finds  it  wild  in  1785. 
Mr.  Bentham  refers  it  to  Nepeta,  hut  substitutes  a new  specific  name  for  that  given 
by  Linnaeus,  which  is  based  on  the  anoient  names,  and  has  at  least  the  right  of 
priority. 

1 “ Gilliflowers  thrive  exceedingly  there,  and  are  very  large.  The  collibuy,  or 
humming-bird,  is  much  pleased  with  them.”  — Josselyn's  Voyages,  p.  188. 

2 Elecampane  (Gerard,  p.  793),  — Inula  Selenium,  L.  “Roadsides”  (1785), — Cut- 
ler, l.  c. ; and  now  extensively  naturalized  in  New  England. 

3 Gerard,  p.  1272,  — Rosa  rubiginosa,  L. ; and  R.  micrantha,  Sm.  Since  naturalized, 
especially  in  Eastern  New  England,  and  not  uncommon  on  roadsides  and  in  pastures. 
First  indicated  as  a member  of  our  Flora  by  Bigelow  in  1824.  — FI.  Bost.,  in  loc. 
“ Eglantine,  or  sweet-bryer,  is  best  sowen  with  juniper-berries,  — two  or  three  to  one 


2f24 


ARCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


Bloodwort  but  sorrily  ; but 

Patience* * * 4  and 

Eng-lish  roses  very  pleasantly.5 

Celandine  (by  the  west-countrymen  called  kenningwort) 
grows  but  slowly.6 

Musckata,  as  well  as  in  England. 

Dittander,  or  pepperwort,  flourisheth  notably  ; and  so  doth 

Tansie.7 

Musk-mellons  are  better  than  our  English,  and 

[91]  Cucumbers. 

Pompions  there  be  of  several  kinds ; some  proper  to  the 
country.8  They  are  dryer  than  our  English  pompions,  and 
better  tasted.  You  may  eat  them  green. 


eglantine-beiTy,  put  into  a hole  made  with  a stick.  The  next  year,  separate  and  re- 

move them  to  your  banks.  In  three  years’  time,  they  will  make  a hedge  as  high  as  a 
man;  which  you  may  keep  thick  and  handsome  with  cutting.”- — Josselyn's  Voyages, 

p.  188.  And  what  next  goes  before  seems  to  show  that  the  author  picked  up  this  infor- 
mation here ; which  is  not  uninteresting. 

4 See  p.  86.  . 

6  Brier-rose,  or  hep-tree  (Gerard,  p.  1270);  “also  called  Rosa  canina,  which  is  a 
plant  so  common  and  well  knowne,  that  it  were  to  small  purpose  to  use  many  words 
in  the  description  thereof:  for  even  children  with  great  delight  eat  the  berries  thereof, 
when  they  be  ripe,  — make  chaines  and  other  prettie  gewgawes  of  the  fruit;  cookes 
and  gentlewomen  make  tarts,  and  such  like  dishes,  for  pleasure  thereof,”  &c.  (Gerard, 
l.  c.).  Rosa  canina,  L.,  was  once  the  collective  name  of  what  are  now  understood  as  many 
distinct  species;  but  that  which  still  retains  the  name  of  dog-rose  is  reckoned  the  finest 
of  native  English  roses.  This  familiar  plant  may  well  have  been  reared  with  tender 
interest  in  some  New-England  gardens  of  Josselyn’s  day;  but  it  did  not  make  a new 
home  here,  like  the  eglantine.  Cutler  gives  the  name  of  dog-rose  to  the  Carolina  rose,  — 
R.  Carolina,  L.,  — which  it  has  not  kept;  and  he  also  makes  it  equivalent  to  the  offici- 
nal R.  canina.  Our  Flora  will  possibly  one  day  include  one  or  two  other  garden-roses. 
A damask  rose  is  well  established  and  spreading  rapidly  in  mowing-land  of  the  writer’s, 
and  elsewhere  on  roadsides  of  this  county;  and  that  general  favorite,  the  cinnamon- 
rose,  which  is  now  naturalized  in  England,  may  yet  become  wild  with  us. 

6 Great  celandine  (Gerard,  p.  1069),  as  the  west-country  name  of  kenning-wort  — 
that  is,  sight- wort  — makes  manifest;  the  juice  being  once  thought  to  he  “good  to 
sharpen  the  sight,”  — Chdidonium  majus,  L.  Small  celandine  ( Ranunculus  Ficaria,  L.) 
was  quite  another  thing.  The  former  had  got  to  be  “ common  by  fences  and  amongst 
rubbish  ” in  1785  (Cutler,  l.  c.),  and  is  now  naturalized  in  Eastern  New  England. 

7 Gerard,  p.  650,  — Tanacetum  vulgare,  L.  In  “pastures”  (1785). — Cutler,  l.  c. 
Now  widely  naturalized  in  New  England. 

8 See  p.  57,  note.  “The  ancient  New-England  standing  dish”  was  doubtless  far 
better  than  Gerard's  fried  pompions  (p.  921),  and  has  more  than  held  its  own. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


225 


The  ancient  New-England  standing  Dish. 

But  the  houswives’  manner  is  to  slice  them  when  ripe, 
and  cut  them  into  dice,  and  so  fill  a pot  with  them  of  two  or 
three  gallons,  and  stew  them  upon  a gentle  fire  a whole  day ; 
and,  as  they  sink,  they  fill  again  with  fresh  pompions,  not 
putting  any  liquor  to  them ; and,  when  it  is  stew’d  enough, 
it  will  look  like  bak’d  apples.  This  they  dish  ; putting  butter 
to  it,  and  a little  vinegar  (with  some  spice,  as  ginger,  &c.)  ; 
which  makes  it  tart,  like  an  apple ; and  so  serve  it  up,  to  be 
eaten  with  fish  or  flesh.  It  provokes  urin  extfeamly,  and  is 
very  windy. 


[92]  Sixthly  and  lastly,  of  Stones,  Minerals,  Metals,  and 

Earths } 

As,  first,  the  emrald ; which  grows  in  flat  rocks,  and  is  very 
good. 

Rubies,  which  here  are  very  watry. 


1 “For  such  commodities  as  lie  under  ground,  I cannot,  out  of  mine  own  experi- 
ence or  knowledge,  say  much;  having  taken  no  great  notice  of  such  things:  but  it  is 
certainly  reported  that  there  is  iron-stone ; and  the  Indians  informed  us  that  they  can 
lead  us  to  the  mountains  of  black-lead;  and  have  shown  us  lead-ore,  if  our  small  judg- 
ment in  such  things  does  not  deceive  us;  and  though  nobody  dare  confidently  con- 
clude, yet  dare  they  not  utterly  deny,  but  that  the  Spaniard’s-bliss  may  lie  hid  in  the 
barren  mountains.  Such  as  have  coasted  the  country  affirm  that  they  know  where  to 
fetch  sea-coal,  if  wood  were  scarce.  There  is  plenty  of  stone,  both  rough  and  smooth, 
useful  for  many  things ; with  quarries  of  slate,  out  of  which  they  get  coverings  for  houses ; 
with  good  clay,  whereof  they  make  tiles  and  bricks  and  pavements  for  their  necessary 
uses.  For  the  country  it  is  well  watered  as  any  land  under  the  sun;  every  family, 
or  every  two  families,  having  a spring  of  sweet  water  betwixt  them ; which  is  far  dif- 
ferent from  the  waters  of  England,  being  not  so  sharp,  but  of  a fatter  substance,  and  of 
a more  jetty  colour.  . . . Those  that  drink  it  be  as  healthful,  fresh,  and  lusty  as  they 
that  drink  beer.”  — Wood , New-Eng.  Prospect,  chap.  v.  “ The  humour  and  justness  of” 
this  writer’s  “account  recommend  him,”  says  the  editor  of  1764,  “to  every  candid 
mind.”  There  is  certainly  no  view  of  New  England,  as  it  was  at  its  settlement,  that 
surpasses  Wood’s  in  understanding,  and  homebom  English  truth,  not  always  without 
beauty.  What  he  says  in  this  place  of  “ quarries  of  slate  ” points  to  a very  early  dis- 

29 


226 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


I have  heard  a story  of  an  Indian  that  found  a stone,  up  in 
the  country  (by  a great  pond),  as  big  as  an  egg,  that,  in  a 
dark  night,  would  give  a light  to  read  by.  But  I take  it  to 
be  but  a story. 

Diamond,  which  are  very  brittle,  and  therefore  of  little 
worth. 

Crystal  (called,  by  our  west-countrymen,  the  kenning-stone), 
by  Sebebug  Pond,  is  found  in  considerable  quantity.  Not  far 
from  thence  is  a rock  of  crystal,  called  the  moose-rock,  be- 
cause in  shape  like  a moose  ; and 

Muscovy-gl'ass,  both  white  and  purple,  of  reasonable  content. 

Black-lead.* 2 

Bole-armoniack. 

[93]  Red  and  yellow  oker. 

Terra  sigilla. 

Vitriol. 

Antimony. 

Arsnick,  too  much. 

Lead.3 


covery.  Iligginson  says,  in  1629  (New-Eng.  Plantation,  l.  c.,  p.  118),  “Here  is  plenty 
of  slates  at  the  Isle  of  Slate  in  Masathulets  Bay:”  and  there  is  a court  order  of 
July  2,  1633,  granting  “to  Tho:  Lambe,  of  slate  in  Slate  Ileand,  10  poole  towards  the 
water-side,  and  5 poole  into  the  land,  for  three  yeares;  payeing  the  yearely  rent  of 
ijs.  vjd.”  — Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  i.  p.  106.  There  are  other  later  grants  of  the  same 
island,  which  “lies  between  Bumkin  Island  and  Weymouth  River.”  — Pemberton , Desc. 
Bust.,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  iii.  p.  297.  Josselyn,  in  his  Voyages,  p.  46,  says  that  tables 
of  slate  could  be  got  out  (he  does  not  tell  us  where),  “long  enough  for  a dozen  men  to 
sit  at.”  Argillaceous  slate  is,  according  to  Dr.  Hitchcock,  “the  predominating  rock 
on  the  outermost  of  these  islands;”  and  he  adds,  that  “there  can  be  but  little  doubt 
that  the  peninsula  of  Boston  has  a foundation  ” of  this  rock.  — Report  on  Geol.  of  Mass., 
p.  270. 

2 “ Mr.  John  Winthrope,  jun.,  is  granted  ye  hill  at  Tantousq,  about  60  miles  west- 
ward, in  which  the  black-leade  is ; and  liberty  to  purchase  some  land  there  of  the  In- 
dians ” (13th  November,  1644).  — Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  ii.  p.  82 ; and  Savage,  in  Winthrop, 
N.  E.,  vol.  ii.  p.  213,  note.  The  place  mentioned  is  what  is  now  Sturbridge;  which  is 
called  “ the  most  important  locality  ” of  black-lead  in  Massachusetts,  by  Dr.  Hitchcock. 
— Geol.,  pp.  47,  395. 

3 “ The  mountains  and  rocky  hills  are  richly  furnished  with  mines  of  lead,  silver, 
copper,  tin,  and  divers  sorts  of  minerals,  branching  out  even  to  their  summits;  where, 
in  small  crannies,  you  may  meet  with  threds  of  perfect  silver:  yet  have  the  English 
no  maw  to  open  any  of  them;”  and  so  forth.  — Josselyn' s Voyages,  p.  44. 


NEW-ENGLAND’S  RARITIES  DISCOVERED. 


227 


Tin. 

Tin-glass. 

Silver. 

Iron,  in  abundance ; and  as  good  bog-iron  as  any  in  the 
world. 

Copper.  It  is  reported  that  the  French  have  a copper 
mine,  at  Port  Royal,  that  yieldeth  them  twelve  ounces  of  pure 
copper  out  of  a pound  of  oar. 

I shall  conclude  this  section  with  a strange  cure  effected 
upon  a drummer’s  wife,  much  afflicted  with  a wolf  in  her 
breast.  The  poor  woman  lived  with  her  husband  at  a town 
called,  by  the  Indians,  Casco ; but,  by  the  English,  Famouth ; 
where,  for  some  time,  she  swaged  the  pain  of  her  sore  by 
bathing  it  with  strong  malt-beer,  which  it  would  [94]  suck  in 
greedily,  as  if  some  living  creature.  When  she  could  come 
by  no  more  beer  (for  it  was  brought  from  Boston,  along  the 
coasts,  by  merchants),  she  made  use  of  rhum,  — a strong  water 
drawn  from  sugar-canes,  — with  which  it  was  lull’d  asleep. 
At  last,  to  be  rid  of  it  altogether,  she  put  a quantity  of 
arsnick  to  the  rhum  ; and,  bathing  of  it  as  formerly,  she  utterly 
destroyed  it,  and  cured  herself.  But  her  kind  husband,  who 
sucked  out  the  poyson  as  the  sore  was  healing,  lost  all  his 
teeth,  but  without  further  danger  or  inconvenience. 


228 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


[95]  AN  ADDITION  OF  SOME  RARITIES  OVERSLIPT. 


The  star-fish,4  having  fine  points  like  a star;  the  whole  fish 
no  bigger  than  the  palm  of  a man’s  hand ; of  a tough  sub- 
stance like  leather,  and  about  an  inch  in  thickness;  whitish 
undeimeath,  and  of  the  colour  of  a cucumber  above,  and  some- 
what ruff.  When  it  is  warm  in  one’s  hand,  you  may  perceive 
a stiff  motion,  turning  down  one  point,  and  thrusting  up  an- 
other. It  is  taken  to  be  poysonous.  They  are  very  common, 
and  found  thrown  up  on  the  rocks  by  the  seaside. 

Sea-bream,  which  are  plentifully  taken  upon  the  seacoasts. 
Their  eyes  are  accounted  rare  meat:  whereupon  the  prover- 
bial comparison,  “ It  is  worth  a sea-bream’s  eye.”5 

[96]  Blew-fisb,  or  horse.  I did  never  see  any  of  them  in 
England.  They  are  big,  usually,  as  the  salmon,  and  better 
meat  by  far.  It  is  common  in  New  England,  and  esteemed 
the  best  sort  of  fish  next  to  rock-cod. 

Cat-fish,  having  a round  head,  and  great,  glaring  eyes,  like 
a cat.  They  lye,  for  the  most  part,  in  holes  of  rocks,  and  are 
discovered  by  their  eyes.  It  is  an  excelling  fish. 

Munk-fish,  a flat-fish  like  scate  ; having  a hood  like  a fryer’s 
cowl. 

Clam,  or  clamp;  a kind  of  shell-fish,  — a white  muscle. 

An  Achariston  for  Pin  and  Web. 

Sheath-fish,  which  are  there  very  plentiful ; a delicate  fish, 
as  good  as  a prawn  ; covered  with  a thin  shell,  like  the  sheath 
of  a knife,  and  of  the  colour  of  a muscle. 

Which  shell,  calcin’d  and  pulveriz’d,  is  excellent  to  take  off 
a pin  and  web,  or  [97]  any  kind  of  filme  growing  over  the  eye. 


4 Asterias  rubens , L.^ — Gould , Report  on  Invert .,  p.  345. 

5 See  the  chapter  on  Fishes,  p.  23,  for  this  and  the  others  here  spoken  of. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


229 


Morse,  or  sea-horse,  having  a great  head  ; wide  jaws,  armed 
with  tushes  as  white  as  ivory ; of  body  as  big  as  a cow,  pro- 
portioned like  a hog;  of  brownish-bay;  smooth-skinned,  and 
impenetrable.  They  are  frequent  at  the  Isle  of  Sables.  Their 
teeth  are  worth  eight  groats  the  pound,  the  best  ivory  being 
sold  but  for  half  the  money.6 

For  Poyson. 

It  is  very  good  against  poyson. 

For  the  Cramp. 

As  also  for  the  cramp ; made  into  rings. 

For  the  Piles. 

And  a secret  for  the  piles,  if  a wise  man  have  the  ordering 
of  it. 

The  manaty,  a fish  as  big  as  a wine-pipe ; most  excellent 
meat;  bred  in  the  rivers  of  Hispaniola,  in  the  West  Indies. 
It  hath  teats,  and  nourisheth  its  young  ones  with  milk.  It  is 
of  a green  colour,  and  tasteth  like  veal. 

[98]  For  the  Stone-collick. 

There  is  a stone,  taken  out  of  the  head,  that  is  rare  for  the 
stone  and  collect. 

To  provoke  Urine. 

Their  bones,  beat  to  a powder  and  drank  with  convenient 
liquors,  is  a gallant  urin-provoking  medicine. 


6 “Numerous  about  the  Isle  of  Sables;  i.e.,  the  Sandy  Isle.” — Voyages , p.  106. 
“ Mr.  Graves  ” (year  1635)  “ in  the  ‘James,’  and  Mr.  Hodges  in  the  ‘ Rebecka,’  set  sail 
for  the  Isle  of  Sable  for  sea-horse,  which  are  there  in  great  number,”  &c.  — Winthrop's 
N.  E.,  by  Savage , vol.  i.  p.  162.  And  I cite  one  other  mention  of  this  pursuit:  “East- 
ward is  the  Isle  of  Sables;  whither  one  John  Webb,  alias  Evered  (an  active  man),  with 
his  companjf,  are  gone,  with  commission  from  the  Bay  to  get  sea-horse  teeth  and  oyle.” 
— Ledford's  Newes  from  New  England  ( 1642),  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  iii.  3d  series,  p.  100. 
The  Magdalen  Islands,  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  are  the  most  southern  habitat  of 
the  animal  spoken  of  by  Godman.  — Amer.  Nat.  Hist.,  vol.  i.  p.  249. 


230 


ARCHJEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


For  Wound  and  Bruise. 

An  Indian,  whose  knee  was  bruised  with  a fall,  and  the  skin 
and  flesh  strip’d  down  to  the  middle  of  the  calf  of  his  leg, 
cured  himself  with  water-lilly  roots,  boyled  and  stamped.7 

For  Swellings  of  the  Foot. 

An  Indian  webb,  her  foot  being  very  much  swell’d  and 
inflamed,  asswaged  the  swelling,  and  too'k  away  the  inflama- 
tion,  with  our  garden,  or  English  patience ; the  roots  roasted, 
- — f.  catajplas.  Anno  1670,  June  28. 

To  dissolve  a scirrhous  Tumour. 

An  Indian  dissolv’d  a scirrhous  tumour  in  the  arm  and  hip 
with  a fomentation  of  tobacco ; applying  afterwards  the  herb, 
stamp’d  betwixt  two  stones. 


[99]  A DESCRIPTION  OF  AN  INDIAN  SQYA.8 

Now,  gentle  reader,  having  trespassed  upon  your  patience 
a long  while  in  the  perusing  of  these  rude  observations,  I 


7 Compare  Cutler  (Account  of  Indig.  Veg.,  1.  c.,  p.  456)  and  Wood  and  Bache 
(Dispens.,  p.  1369). 

8 The  author  has  something  to  the  same  effect  in  his  Voyages,  p.  124;  but  Wood’s 
account  of  the  Indian  women  (New-England’s  Prospect,  part  ii.  chap,  xx.)  is  far  bet- 
ter worth  reading.  Both  appreciated,  in  one  way  or  another,  their  savage  neighbors. 
Wood  has  a pleasant  touch  at  the  last.  “ These  women,”  he  says,  “ resort  often  to 
the  English  houses,  where  pares  cum  paribus  congregatce, — in  sex,  I mean,  — they  do 
somewhat  ease  their  misery  by  complaining,  and  seldom  part  without  a relief.  If  her 
husband  come  to  seek  for  his  squaw,  and  begin  to  bluster,  the  English  woman  betakes 
her  to  her  arms,  which  are  the  warlike  ladle  and  the  scalding  liquors,  threatning  blis- 
tering to  the  naked  runaway,  who  is  soon  expelled  by  such  liquid  comminations.  In 
a word,  to  conclude  this  woman’s  history,  their  love  to  the  English  hath  deserved  no 
small  esteem ; ever  presenting  them  something  that  is  either  rare  or  desired,  — as  straw- 
berries, hurtleberries,  rasberries,  gooseberries,  cherries,  plumbs,  fish,  and  other  such 
gifts  as  their  poor  treasury  yields  them”  (l.  c.).  And,  if  Lechford’s  Newes  from  New 
England  [l.  c.,  p.  103)  can  be  trusted,  the  savages  became  “much  the  kinder  to  their 
wives  by  the  example  of  the  English.” 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


231 


shall,  to  make  you  amends,  present  you,  by  way  of  divertise- 
ment  or  recreation,  with  a coppy  of  verses,  made  some  time 
since,  upon  the  picture  of  a young  and  handsome  Gypsie,  not 
improperly  transferred  upon  the  Indian  squa,  or  female  In- 
dian, trick’d  up  in  all  her  bravery. 

The  men  are  somewhat  horse-fac’d,  and  generally  faucious, 
— i.e.,  without  beards:  but  the  women,  many  of  them,  [100] 
have  very  good  features ; seldome  without  a come-to-me,  or 
cos  amoris,  in  their  countenance  ; all  of  them  black-eyed  ; hav- 
ing even,  short  teeth,  and  very  white  ; their  hair  black,  thick, 
and  long ; broad-breasted ; handsome,  streight  bodies,  and 
slender,  considering  their  constant  loose  habit ; their  limbs 
cleanly,  straight,  and  of  a convenient  stature,  — generally  as 
plump  as  partridges ; and,  saving  here  and  there  one,  of  a 
modest  deportment. 

Their  garments  are  a pair  of  sleeves,  of  deer  or  moose  skin 
drest,  and  drawn  with  lines  of  several  colours  into  Asiatick 
works,  with  buskins  of  the  same  ; a short  mantle  of  trading- 
cloath,  either  blew  or  red,  fastened  with  a knot  under  the 
chin,  and  girt  about  the  middle  with  a zone,  wrought  with 
white  and  blew  beads  into  pretty  works.  Of  these  beads 
they  have  bracelets  for  their  neck  and  arms,  and  links  to  hang 
in  their  ears ; and  a fair  table,  curiously  made  up  with  beads 
likewise,  to  wear  before  their  breast.  Their  hair  they  combe 
backward,  and  tye  it  up  short  with  a border,  about  two  hand- 
bills broad,  [101]  wrought  in  works,  as  the  other,  with  their 
beads.  But  enough  of  this. 


232 


ARCHA30L0GIA  AMERICANA. 


THE  POE  M. 


Whether  white  or  black  be  best, 

Call  your  senses  to  the  quest ; 

And  your  touch  shall  quickly  tell, 

The  black  in  softness  doth  excel, 

And  in  smoothness  : but  the  ear  — 
What ! can  that  a colour  hear  ? 

No ; but  ’tis  your  black  one’s  wit 
That  doth  catch  and  captive  it. 

And,  if  slut  and  fair  be  one, 

Sweet  and  fair  there  can  be  none ; 

Nor  can  ought  so  please  the  tast 
As  what’s  brown  and  lovely  drest. 

And  who’ll  say  that  that  is  best 
To  please  one  sense,  displease  the  rest? 
[102]  Maugre,  then,  all  that  can  be  sed 
In  flattery  of  white  and  red  : 

Those  flatterers  themselves  must  say 
That  darkness  was  before  the  day ; 

And  such  perfection  here  appears, 

It  neither  wind  nor  sunshine  fears. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


233 


[103]  A CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

OF  THE 

Most  remarkable  Passages  in  that  Part  of  America  known  to 
us  by  the  Name  of  New  England ,9 


Anno  Dom. 

1492.  Christ.  Columbus  discovered  America. 

1516.  The  voyage  of  Sir  Thomas  Pert,  Vice-Admiral  of 
England,  and  Sir  Sebastian  Cabota,  to  Brazile,  &c. 

1527.  Newfoundland  discovered  by  the  English. 

1577.  Sir  Francis  Drake  began  his  voyage  about  the 
world. 

[104]  1585.  Nova  Albion  discovered  by  Sir  Francis  Drake, 
and  by  him  so  named. 

1585,  April  9.  Sir  Richard  Greenevile  was  sent  by  Sir 
Walter  Rawleigh  with  a fleet  of  seven  sail  to  Virginia,  and 
was  stiled  the  General  of  Virginia. 

1586.  Capt.  Thomas  Candish,  a Suffolk  gentleman,  began 
his  voyage  round  about  the  world,  with  three  ships,  past  the 
Streights  of  Magellan ; burn’d  and  ransack’d  in  the  entry  of 
Chile,  Peru,  and  New  Spain,  near  the  great  island  California, 
in  the  South  Sea ; and  returned  to  Plymouth  with  a precious 
booty,  Anno  Dom.  1588,  September  the  8th ; being  the  third 
since  Magellan  that  circuited  the  earth. 

1588.  Sir  Walter  Rawleigh  first  discovered  Virginia,  by 
him  so  named  in  honour  of  our  Virgin  Queen. 

1595.  Sir  Walter  Rawleigh  discovered  Guiana. 


9 In  the  author’s  Voyages,  this  chronological  table  is  greatly  extended;  beginning 
■with  “ Anno  Mundi , 3720,”  and  ending  with  A.D.  1674. 

30 


234 


ARCHiEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


[105]  1G06.  A collony  sent  to  Virginia. 

1614.  Bermudas  planted. 

1618.  The  blazing  star.  Then  Plymouth  Plantation  began 
in  New  England.1 

1628.  The  Massachusets  Colony  planted,  and  Salem  the 
first  town  therein  built.2 

1629.  The  first  church  gathered  in  this  Colony  was  at 
Salem ; from  which  year  to  this  present  year  is  43  years. 

In  the  compass  of  these  years,  in  this  Colony,  there  hath 
been  gathered  fourty  churches  and  120  towns  built  in  all  the 
Colonies  of  New  England. 

The  church  of  Christ  at  Plymouth  was  planted  in  New 
England  eight  years  before  others. 

1630.  The  Governour  and  assistants  [106]  arrived,  with 
their  pattent  for  the  Massachusets. 

1630.  The  Lady  Arabella  in  New  England. 


1 Set  right  by  the  author  in  Voyages,  p.  248. 

2 The  author,  in  the  “chronological  observations”  appended  to  his  Voyages,  en- 
larges this,  but  confounds  Conant’s  Plantation  at  Cape  Ann,  and  Endicott’s,  as  follows: 
“ 1628.  Mr.  John  Endicot  arrived  in  Ne*w  England  with  some  number  of  people,  and 
set  down  first  by  Cape  Ann,  at  a place  called  afterwards  Gloster;  but  their  abiding- 
place  was  at  Salem,  where  they  built  the  first  town  in  the  Massachusets  Patent.  . . . 
1629.  Three  ships  arrived  at  Salem,  bringing  a great  number  of  passengers  from  Eng- 
land. . . . Mr.  Endicot  chosen  Governour.”  The  next  year,  Josselyn  continues  as  fol- 
lows: “ 1630.  The  10th  of  July,  John  Winthorp,  Esq.,  and  the  Assistants,  arrived  in 
New  England  with  the  patent  for  the  Massachusetts.  . . . John  Winthorp,  Esq.,  chosen 
Governour  for  the  remainder  of  the  year;  Mr.  Thomas  Dudley,  Deputy-Governour; 
Mr.  Simon  Broadstreet,  Secretary.”  — Voyages , p.  252.  The  title  of  Governor  was 
used  anciently,  as  it  still  is  elsewhere,  in  a looser  sense  than  has  been  usual  in  New 
England;  and  derived  all  the  dignity  that  it  had  from  the  character  and  considerable- 
ness of  the  government.  Conant  and  Endicott  were  directors  or  governors  of  settle- 
ments in  the  Massachusetts  Bay  before  Winthrop’s  arrival;  but  when  the  Massachusetts 
Company  in  London  proceeded,  on  the  20th  October,  1629,  to  carry  into  effect  their 
resolution  to  transfer  their  government  to  this  country,  — and  chose  accordingly  Win- 
throp  to  be  their  Governor;  Humphrey,  their  Deputy-Governor;  and  Endicot  and  others, 
Assistants  (Young,  Chron.  of  Mass.,  p.  102),  — the  record  appears  sufficient  evidence 
that  they  had  in  view  something  quite  different  from  the  fishing  plantation  which  Co- 
nant had  had  charge  of  at  Cape  Ann,  or  the  little  society  (“  in  all,  not  much  above  fifty 
or  sixty  persons,”  says  White’s  Relation  in  Young,  Chron.,  p.  13;  which  the  editor, 
from  Higginson’s  narrative,  raises  to  “about  a hundred”)  “of  which  Master  Endecott 
was  sent  out  Governour”  (White,  l.  c.)  at  Naumkeak. 


NEW- ENGLAND'S  RARITIES  DISCOVERED. 


235 


1630.  When  the  government  was  established,  they  planted 
on  Noddle’s  Island.3 

1631.  Capt.  John  Smith,  Governour  of  Virginia  and  Ad- 
miral of  New  England,  dyed. 

1631.  Mr.  Mavericke,  minister  at  Dorchester  in  New  Eng- 
land.4 

1631.  John  Winthorpe,  Esq.,  chosen  the  first  time  Gov- 
ernour. He  was  eleven  times  Governour, — some  say  nineteen 
times,  — eleven  years  together ; the  other  years  by  intermis- 
sion. 

1631.  John  Wilson,  pastor  of  Charles  Town.4 

[107]  1631.  Sir  R.  Saltingstall,  at  Water  Town,  came  into 
New  England.4 

1631.  Mr.  Rog.  Harlackinden  was  a majestrate,  and  a leader 
of  their  military  forces.5 

Dr.  Wilson  gave  1000Z.  to  New-  England;  with  which  they 
stored  themselves  with  great  guns.6 

1633.  Mr.  Thomas  Hooker,  Mr.  Haynes,  and  Mr.  John  Cot- 
ton, came  over  together  in  one  ship. 

1631.  The  country  was  really  placed  in  a posture  of  war, 
to  be  in  readiness  at  all  times. 

1635.  Hugh  Peters  went  over  for  New  England. 

1636.  Connecticut  Colony  planted. 

[108]  1637.  The  Pequites’  wars,  in  which  were  slain  five 
or  six  hundred  Indians. 

Ministers  that  have  come  from  England,  chiefly  in  the  ten 
first  years,  ninety-four  ; of  which  returned,  twenty-seven  ; dyed 
in  the  country,  thirty-six ; yet  alive  in  the  country,  thirty-one. 


3 That  is,  Noddle’s  Island  was  already  planted  on  (by  Mr.  Maverick)  when  the 
government  was  established.  — Compare  Johnson,  cited  by  Prince,  N.  E.  Chronol., 
edit.  2,  p.  308,  note. 

4 The  date  set  right  in  Prince,  N.  E.  Chronol.,  p.  367. 

5 The  date  corrected  in  Prince,  N.  E.  Chronol.,  edit.  2,  p.  367. 

6 Compare  Prince,  p.  367,  and  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  i.  p.  128.  “ The  will,”  says  Dr. 
Mather,  “ because  it  bequeathed  a thousand  pounds  to  New  England,  gave  satisfaction 
unto  our  Mr.  Wilson;  though  it  was  otherwise  injurious  to  himself.”  — Magnalia , 
vol.  iii.  p.  45,  cit.  Davis,  in  Morton's  Memorial , p.  334,  note. 


236 


ABCELEOLOGIA  AMERICANA. 


The  number  of  ships  that  transported  passengers  to  New 
England  in  these  times  was  298  ; supposed.  Men,  women, 
and  children,  as  near  as  can  be  ghessed,  21,200. 

1637.  The  first  synod  at  Cambridge  in  New  England, 
where  the  Antinomian  and  Famalistical  errors  were  confuted. 
Eighty  errors  now  amongst  the  Massachusets. 

1638.  New-Haven  Colony  began. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  erronious  companions  banished 
the  Massachusets  Colony. 

[109]  A terrible  earthquake  throughout  the  country.7 

Mr.  John  Harvard,  the  founder  of  Harvard  College  (at 
Cambridge  in  New  England),  deceased,  gave  700k  to  the 
erecting  of  it. 

1639.  First  printing  at  Cambridge  in  New  England. 

1639.  A very  sharp  winter  in  New  England. 

1612.  Harvard  College  founded  with  a publick  library. 

Ministers  bred  in  New  England  and  (excepting  about  10) 

in  Harvard  College,  132:  of  which,  dyed  in  the  country,  10; 
now  living,  81  ; removed  to  England,  41. 

1613.  The  first  combination  of  the  four  united  Colonies ; 
viz.,  Plymouth,  Massachusets,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven. 

[110]  1616.  The  second  synod  at  Cambridge,  touching 
the  duty  and  power  of  majestrates  in  matters  of  religion; 
secondly,  the  nature  and  power  of  synods. 

Mr.  Eliot  first  preached  to  the  Indians  in  their  native  lan- 
guage. 

1617.  Mr.  Thomas  Hooker  died. 

1618.  The  third  synod  at  Cambridge  publishing  the  Plat- 
form of  Discipline. 

1619.  Mr.  John  Winthorpe,  Governour,  now  died. 

This  year  a strange  multitude  of  caterpillers  in  New  Eng- 
land.8 


7 Compare  Winthrop,  N.E.,  vol.  i.  p.  265;  Johnson’s  Wonder-working  Prov.,  lib.  ii. 
e.  12,  cit.  Savage;  and  Morton’s  Memorial,  by  Davis,  p.  209,  and  note,  p.  289. 

8 Morton’s  Memorial,  by  Davis,  p.  244. 


new-england’s  rarities  discovered. 


237 


Thrice  seven  years  after  the  planting  of  the  English  in 
New  England,  the  Indians  of  Massachusets,  being  30,000 
able  men,  were  brought  to  300. 

1651.  Hugh  Peters  and  Mr.  Wells  came  for  England. 

[111]  1652.  Mr.  John  Cotton  dyed. 

1653.  The  great  fire  in  Boston  in  New  England. 

Mr.  Thomas  Dudley,  Governour  of  the  Massachusets,  dyed 
this  year. 

1654.  Major  Gibbons  died  in  New  England. 

1655.  Jamaica  taken  by  the  English. 

1657.  The  Quakers  arrived  in  New  England,  at  Plymouth. 

1659.  Mr.  Henry  Dunster,  the  first  President  of  Harvard 
College,  now  dyed. 

1661.  Major  Atherton  dyed  in  New  England. 

1663.  Mr.  John  Norton,  pastor  of  Boston  in  New  England, 
dyed  suddenly. 

[112]  Mr.  Samuel  Stone,  teacher  of  Hartford  Church,  dyed 
this  year. 

1664.  The  whole  Bible,  printed  in  the  Indian  language, 
finished. 

The  Manadaes,  called  New  Amsterdam  (now  called  New 
York),  surrendered  up  to  his  Majestie’s  Commissioners  for 
the  settling  of  the  respective  Colonies  in  New  England  (viz., 
Sir  Robert  Carr,  Collonel  Nicols,  Collonel  Cartwright,  and  Mr. 
Samuel  Mavericke)  in  September,  — after  thirteen  dayes,  the 
fort  of  Arania,  now  Albania ; twelve  dayes  after  that,  the  fort 
Awsapha;  then  De  la  Ware  Castle,  man’d  with  Dutch  and 
Swedes ; the  three  first  forts  and  towns  being  built  upon  the 
great  river  Mohegan,  otherwise  called  Hudson’s  River. 

In  September  appeared  a great  comet  for  the  space  of  three 
months.9 

9 1664,  “ December,  a great  and  dreadful  comet,  or  blazing  star,  appeared  in  the 
south-east  in  New  England  for  the  space  of  three  moneths;  which  was  accompanied 
with  many  sad  effects,  — great  mildews  blasting  in  the  countrey  the  next  summer.”  — 
Josselyn's  Voyages , Chronol.  Obs.,  p.  273 ; and  see  p.  245  of  the  same  for  a fuller  account. 
— Compare  Morton’s  Memorial,  by  Davis,  p.  304.  As  to  the  blasting  and  mildew  of 
1665,  see  the  same,  p.  317 ; and  that  of  1664,  p.  309. 


238 


ARCH2E0L0GIA  AMERICANA. 


1665.  Mr.  John  Indicot,  Governour  of  the  Massachusets, 
dyed. 

[113]  A thousand  foot  sent  this  year,  by  the  French  king, 
to  Canada. 

Capt.  Davenport  killed  with  lightning  at  the  Castle  by  Bos- 
ton in  New  England,  and  several  wounded. 

1666.  The  small-pox  at  Boston;  seven  slain  by  lightning, 
and  divers  burnt.  This  year,  also,  New  England  had  cast 
away  and  taken  31  vessels,  and  some  in  1667. 

1667.  Mr.  John  Wilson,  pastor  of  Boston,  dyed,  aged  79 
years. 

1670.  At  a place  called  Kenibunck,  which  is  in  the  Pro- 
vince of  Meyne  (a  Colony  belonging  to  the  heir  of  that 
honourable  knight,  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges),  not  far  from  the 
river-side,  a piece  of  clay  ground  was  thrown  up  by  a mineral 
vapour  (as  we  supposed),  over  the  tops  of  high  oaks  that 
grew  between  it  and  the  river,  into  the  river,  stopping  the 
course  thereof,  and  leaving  a hole  two  yards  square,  wherein 
were  thousands  of  [114]  clay  bullets  as  big  as  musquet-bullets, 
and  pieces  of  clay  in  shape  like  the  barrel  of  a musquet.1 

1671.  Elder  Penn  dyed  at  Boston. 

1672.  Mr.  Richard  Bellingham,  Governour  of  the  Massa- 
chusets in  New  England.2 

FINIS. 


1 See  Josselvn’s  Voyages,  p.  204  and  p.  277,  where  the  “ hole  ” is  said  to  have  been, 
not 11  two,”  but  “ forty,  yards  square:  ” and  we  are  farther  told  that  “ the  like  accident 
fell  out  at  Casco,  one  and  twenty  miles  from  it  to  the  eastward,  much  about  the  same 
time;  aud  fish,  in  some  ponds  in  the  countrey,  thrown  up  dead  upon  the  banks,  — sup- 
posed likewise  to  be  kill’d  with  mineral  vapours.”  Hubbard  (Hist.  N.E.,  chap.  75) 
tells  this,  partly  in  the  same  words  with  the  account  in  the  Voyages,  and  adds,  “ All 
the  whole  town  of  Wells  are  witnesses  of  the  truth  of  this  relation;  and  many  others 
have  seen  sundry  of  these  clay  pellets,  which  the  inhabitants  have  shown  to  their 
neighbours  of  other  towns.”  And  compare  also  the  following,  at  p.  189  of  the  Voyages: 
“In  1669,  the  pond  that  lyeth  between  Watertown  and  Cambridge  cast  its  fish  dead 
upon  the  shore;  forc’t  by  a mineral  vapour,  as  was  conjectured.” 

2 It  is  proper  to  add  here,  that  a few  other  errors  of  the  press,  beside  those  of  which 
a list  has  already  been  given,  have  been  found  during  the  printing,  and  corrected. 


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